tear

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tâ, IPA^(key): /tɛə/
• (General American) enPR: târ, IPA^(key): /tɛəɹ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /teə/
• Homophone: tare, tear (NZ)
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)

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.

    • 2019, Lana Del Rey, Hope Is a Dangerous Thing:

      I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown. 24/7 Sylvia Plath.

11. (intransitive) To smash or enter something with great force.

    The chain shot tore into the approaching line of infantry.

• (break): rend, rip
• (remove by tearing): rip out, tear off, tear out

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

• tearsheet

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tî, IPA^(key): /tɪə̯/
• (General American) enPR: tîr, IPA^(key): /tɪəɹ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /tɪə̯/, /teə/
• Homophone: tier (layer or rank), tear (NZ, also)
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

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.

   • 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act V, scene ii, page 338:

     I pray you in your Letters, / When you ſhall theſe vnluckie deeds relate, / Speake of me, as I am. […] / Of one, whoſe ſubdu'd Eyes, / Albeit un-vsed to the melting moode, / Drops teares as faſt as the Arabian Trees / Their Medicinable gumme.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ' […] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because "it was wicked to dress us like charity children". […]'

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.
   • 1717, William Congreve, Samuel Croxall, John Dryden, Laurence Eusden, John Ozell, “Book X”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Let Araby extol her happy coast, / Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears.

4. (glass manufacture) A partially vitrified bit of clay in glass.
5. That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
   • 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago, Cambridge: Printed by Thomas Buck, and Roger Daniel, published 1638, page 131:

     Without meed of some melodious tear. Begin then, Sisters of the sacred well [...]

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.

• 'eart, Ater, Reta, aret, arte-, rate, tare, tera-

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

• IPA^(key): /teˈaɾ/

tear m (plural teares)

1. loom

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “tear”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “tear”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “tear”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

tear

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

• tæhher, tǣr, teagor

From Proto-West Germanic *tahr.

• IPA^(key): /tæ͜ɑːr/

tēar m

1. tear (drop of liquid from the tear duct)

   tēar ġēotan

   to shed a tear

• tīeran

• Middle English: teer, teere, ter, tere, tær, tear (Early Middle English), tyer, tyear, tyar (Kent)
  • English: tear
  • Middle Scots: tear, tere, teir, tichwr, tychir
    • Scots: tear, taer, tare, teir

From teia +‎ -ar.

• Hyphenation: te‧ar

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.

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

tear c (plural tearen, diminutive tearke)

1. fold
2. crease

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