Link Centre Dictionary

tear

UK/tɪə/ US/tɪː/ common slang
verb (5) noun (4)

verb

1.

separate or cause to separate abruptly

  • “The rope snapped”
  • “tear the paper”
Synonyms
2.

to separate or be separated by force

  • “planks were in danger of being torn from the crossbars”
3.

move quickly and violently

  • “The car tore down the street”
  • “He came charging into my office”
Synonyms
4.

strip of feathers

  • “pull a chicken”
  • “pluck the capon”
Synonyms
5.

fill with tears or shed tears

  • “Her eyes were tearing”

noun

1.

a drop of the clear salty saline solution secreted by the lacrimal glands

  • “his story brought tears to her eyes”
Synonyms
2.

an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart

  • “there was a rip in his pants”
  • “she had snags in her stockings”
Synonyms
3.

an occasion for excessive eating or drinking

  • “they went on a bust that lasted three days”
Synonyms
4.

the act of tearing

  • “he took the manuscript in both hands and gave it a mighty tear”

Origin

From Middle English tear, teer, teere, ter, tere, tyar, tyear, tyer, tær (“tear”), from Old English teagor, tēar, tæher, from Proto-West Germanic *tahr, from Proto-Germanic *tahrą (“tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dáḱru- (“tear”). Cognates Cognate with German Zähre (“tear”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk tåre (“tear”), Faroese and Icelandic tár (“tear”), Swedish tår (“tear”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐍂 (tagr, “teardrop”); also Cornish dager (“tear; drop”), Irish deoir (“tear”), Manx jeir (“tear”), Scottish Gaelic deur (“tear; drop”), Welsh deigryn (“tear”), Latin dacrima, dacruma, lachryma, lacrima, lacruma, lacryma (“tear”), Greek δάκρυ (dákry, “tear”), Armenian արտոսր (artosr, “tear”).

Phrases

  • angel's tears
  • Apache tear
  • artificial tear
  • artificial tear drop
  • baby's tears
  • bored to tears
  • burst into tears
  • hot tear
  • Mallory-Weiss tear
  • on a tear
  • tear a cat terms derived from tear (verb)
  • tear a strip off someone terms derived from tear (verb)

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Related verbs

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.