tear

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See also: te-ar

English

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Etymology 1

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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.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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tear (third-person singular simple present tears, present participle tearing, simple past tore, past participle torn or (now colloquial and nonstandard) tore)

  2. (transitive) To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
    He tore his coat on the nail.
    • 1886, Gustave Flaubert, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Madame Bovary, published 1856, Part III Chapter XI:
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      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.
  4. (transitive) To injure as if by pulling apart.
    He has a torn ligament.
    He tore some muscles in a weight-lifting accident.
  5. (transitive) To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.
    He was torn by conflicting emotions.
  6. (transitive) To make (an opening) with force or energy.
    A piece of debris tore a tiny straight channel through the satellite.
    His boss will tear him a new one when he finds out.
    The artillery tore a gap in the line.
  7. (transitive, often with off or out) To remove by tearing, or with sudden great force.
    Tear the coupon out of the newspaper.
    • 2012, Max Overton, Horemheb:
      [A] surge of muddy water tore him free from his sandy nook and tumbled him down the gully.
  8. (transitive, of structures, with down) To demolish.
    The slums were torn down to make way for the new development.
  9. (intransitive) To become torn, especially accidentally.
    My dress has torn.
  10. (intransitive) To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
    He went tearing down the hill at 90 miles per hour.
    The tornado lingered, tearing through town, leaving nothing upright.
    He tore into the backlog of complaints.
  11. (intransitive) To smash or enter something with great force.
    The chain shot tore into the approaching line of infantry.
Synonyms
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  • (break): rend, rip
  • (remove by tearing): rip out, tear off, tear out
Derived terms
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terms derived from tear (verb)
Translations
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Noun

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tear (plural tears)

  1. A hole or break caused by tearing.
    A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.
  2. (slang) A rampage.
    to go on a tear
Derived terms
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Translations
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Derived terms

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Etymology 2

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
A child producing tears.

From Middle English teer (“tear”), from Old English tēar, from Proto-West Germanic *tahr, from Proto-Germanic *tahrą (“tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dáḱru- (“tears”).

Cognates include Old Norse tár (Danish tåre and Norwegian tåre), Old High German zahar (German Zähre), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐍂 (tagr), Irish deoir and Latin lacrima.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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tear (plural tears)

  2. A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.
    There were big tears rolling down Lisa's cheeks.
    Ryan wiped the tear from the paper he was crying on.
  3. Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
  4. (glass manufacture) A partially vitrified bit of clay in glass.
  5. That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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tear (third-person singular simple present tears, present participle tearing, simple past and past participle teared)

  1. (intransitive) To produce tears.
    Her eyes began to tear in the harsh wind.
Translations
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Anagrams

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Galician

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Tear ("loom")

Etymology

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Tea (“cloth”) +‎ -ar. Compare Portuguese tear and Spanish telar.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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tear m (plural teares)

  1. loom

References

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Middle English

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Noun

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tear

  1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of teer (“tear”)

Old English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-West Germanic *tahr.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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tēar m

  1. tear (drop of liquid from the tear duct)
    tēar ġēotan
    to shed a tear

Declension

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Declension of tēar (strong a-stem)
Case Singular Plural
nominative tēar tēaras
accusative tēar tēaras
genitive tēares tēara
dative tēare tēarum

Derived terms

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Descendants

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Portuguese

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FWOTD – 22 July 2019

Etymology

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From teia +‎ -ar.

Pronunciation

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  • Hyphenation: te‧ar

Noun

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tear m (plural teares)

  1. loom (machine used to make cloth out of thread)
    • 1878, Joaquim Pedro Oliveira Martins, O hellenismo e a civilisação christan, publ. by the widow Bertand & Co., page 24.
      Procuro o motivo, Lysidice, porque gravaram na tua louza estes emblemas: um bridão, um freio, o passaro que abunda em Tanagro, vivo e bellicoso, não costumam convir nem agradar á mulheres sedentarias que amam o tear e a roca.
      I am trying to find out why they carved these emblems into your tombstone, Lysidice: a bridoon, a bit, the bird that is common in Tanagro, lively and warlike; they are usually neither convenient nor pleasant to sedentary women who love the loom and the distaff.

West Frisian

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Etymology

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

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tear c (plural tearen, diminutive tearke)

  1. fold
  2. crease

Further reading

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  • “tear (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
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