Meaning & use
tear
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To fill up with liquid in the eyes, usually from sadness, smoke or strong feeling.
Grammar: Rhymes with here; no object. Often tear up: her eyes teared up.
Patterns
- tear up
- tear up at something
My eyes tear whenever I chop onions.
She teared up at the end of the movie.
The wind made his eyes tear as he cycled.
nouncountable
A drop of salty liquid that comes from the eye when crying or when the eye is irritated.
Grammar: Rhymes with here; often plural in phrases like in tears.
Patterns
- burst into tears
- in tears
- shed a tear
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
He burst into tears when he heard the news.
The little boy wiped away his tears.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To pull something apart or into pieces by force, or to make a hole or split in it.
Grammar: Rhymes with air; irregular: tear, tore, torn.
Patterns
- tear something
- tear something up
- tear something off
He tore the letter in half.
Be careful not to tear the paper.
She tore her sleeve on a nail.
nouncountable
A hole or split in cloth, paper or skin where it has been pulled apart.
Grammar: Rhymes with air.
Patterns
- a tear in something
There was a small tear in the curtain.
The surgeon repaired a tear in the muscle.
I sewed up the tear in my jeans.
verbintransitiveinformal
To move very quickly and often carelessly.
Grammar: Followed by a direction word: tear down the road.
Patterns
- tear along
- tear down something
The kids tore down the hallway.
A motorcycle tore past us on the highway.
She tore across the parking lot to catch the bus.
Word forms
| third person singular | tears |
|---|---|
| past tense (rip) | tore |
| past participle (rip) | torn |
| -ing form | tearing |
Common combinations
- burst into tears
- She burst into tears at the airport.
- tear a muscle
- He tore a muscle in his thigh.
- tear something apart
- Floods tore the village apart.
- tear up
- I tore up the old letters.
- tear down
- They will tear down the old stadium.
- in tears
- The child was in tears after losing the game.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rip
- Rip is more informal and suggests a sudden, noisy tearing, whereas tear covers both gentle and violent separating.
- shred
- Shred means to tear into many small strips, while tear can leave just two parts.
- split
- Split suggests dividing along a line, while tear suggests pulling with force.
- rend
- Rend is a literary word for violent tearing, much stronger than tear.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: tear or tier? tear or tare?
tear vs tier
Tier sounds like tear meaning a drop from the eye, but a tier is a level or row, as in the top tier of seats.
tear vs tare
Tare, which sounds like tear meaning rip, is the weight of a container subtracted when weighing goods.
Practice
Careful with that old map, or you will ______ it along the folds.
Choose one answer.
Tear (rhymes with air) means to rip, which fits a fragile old map. Tier, tare and tire are different words that sound or look similar.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tear”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.