tear
/tɛɹ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.35 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "He tore his coat on the nail."
- "Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season. He suffered, poor man, at seeing her so badly dressed, with laceless boots, and the arm-holes of her pinafore torn down to the hips; for the charwoman took no care of her."
- "He tore some muscles in a weight-lifting accident."
- "He was torn by conflicting emotions."
- "A piece of debris tore a tiny straight channel through the satellite."
- "His boss will tear him a new one when he finds out."
Etymology
From Middle English teren, from Old English teran (“to tear, lacerate”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear, tear apart, rip”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”). Cognate with Scots tere, teir, tair (“to rend, lacerate, wound, rip, tear out”), Dutch teren (“to eliminate, efface, live, survive by consumption”), German zehren (“to consume, misuse”), German zerren (“to tug, rip, tear”), Danish tære (“to consume”), Swedish tära (“to fret, consume, deplete, use up”), Icelandic tæra (“to clear, corrode”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Ancient Greek δέρω (dérō, “to skin”), Albanian ther (“to slay, skin, pierce”). Doublet of tire.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /tɛɹ/
- British English: /tɛə/