Meaning of tear in English

tear

verb

/ter/ uk

/teər/

tore | torn

tear verb (PULL APART)

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B1 [ I or T ]

to pull or be pulled apart, or to pull pieces off:

You have to be very careful with books this old because the paper tears very easily.

I tore my skirt on the chair as I stood up.

be torn out of/from A couple of pages had been torn out of/from the book.

More examplesFewer examples

She tried to tear a small piece off the edge.
I tore off a piece of paper.
The dog's claws tore her dress.
The sheet tore right down the middle.
You need to tear off the top of the bag.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Tearing and breaking into pieces

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tear verb (HURRY)

[ I + adv/prep ] informal

to move very quickly:

He went tearing along the road after the bus.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

to move fast

speedHe ran back to his car and sped off.
raceShe raced over and hugged me.
flyShe flew across the room just in time to stop the baby from falling off the chair.
beltUK Traffic was belting along the motorway.
tearA fire truck came tearing down the road.
streakBullets streaked across the sky.

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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Moving quickly

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Idioms

be in a tearing hurry
tear your hair out
tear someone's heart out
tear a strip off someone

Phrasal verbs

tear something apart
tear someone/something apart
tear someone apart
tear someone away
tear something down
tear into something
tear into someone/something
tear something off
tear off
tear something up

tear

noun [ C ]

/ter/ uk

/teər/

tear noun [C] (HOLE)

a hole in a piece of paper, cloth, or other material, where it has been torn

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Tearing and breaking into pieces

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Holes, hollows and dips

on a tear

US informal

having a period of success:

The Sox finished the season on a tear, winning 70% of their last 66 games.

tear

noun

/tɪr/ uk

/tɪər/

tear noun (FROM EYES)

B1 [ C usually plural ]

a drop of salty liquid that flows from the eye, as a result of strong emotion, especially unhappiness, or pain:

tears of She cried tears of remorse/regret/happiness/joy/laughter.

tears in someone’s eyes Did you notice the tears in his eyes when he talked about Diane?

reduce someone to tears Why do arguments with you always reduce me to tears (= make me cry)?

shed (any) tears I won't shed (any) tears (= I will not be unhappy) when he goes, I can tell you!

Vladimir Godnik/GettyImages

bring tears to someone's eyes

to cause someone to cry or to have tears in their eyes:

This song always brings tears to my eyes.

burst into tears

to suddenly start to cry:

She burst into tears and started screaming.

in tears

crying:

I found him in tears in his bedroom.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Animal physiology: bodily fluids & their production

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Weeping and crying

tear verb [I] (PRODUCE TEARS)

(of eyes) to produce tears:

Why do our eyes tear when we're cutting onions?

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Weeping and crying

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Phrasal verb

tear up

(Definition of tear from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

tear | Intermediate English

tear

noun [ C usually pl ]

/tɪər/

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a drop of salty liquid that flows from the eye when it is hurt or as a result of strong emotion, esp. unhappiness or pain:

By the end of the movie I had tears in my eyes (= I was ready to cry).

The boy had lost his money and was in tears (= crying).

tear

verb

/teər/

past tense tore us/tɔr, toʊr/ | past participle torn us/tɔrn, toʊrn/

tear verb (PULL APART)

[ I/T ]

to pull or be pulled apart or away from something else, or to cause this to happen to something:

[ T ] I caught my shirt on a nail and tore the sleeve.

[ T ] I tore a hole in my sleeve.

[ T ] Several pages had been torn out of the book.

[ M ] She tore off a strip of bandage and wrapped it around the wound.

[ M ] He angrily tore the letter up (= into small pieces).

[ M ] They tore down (= destroyed) the old building.

[ M ] fig. The political situation threatened to tear the country apart.

tear verb (HURRY)

[ I always + adv/prep ] infml

to move very quickly; to rush:

She was late and went tearing around the house looking for her car keys.

Phrasal verbs

tear someone/yourself away
tear apart something/someone
tear into something/someone
tear into something
tear off something

tear

noun [ C ]

/ter, tær/

tear noun [C] (OPENING)

a hole or opening in something that is made by pulling apart or away from something else:

There’s a tear in the lining of my coat.

(Definition of tear from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of tear

tear

And three of these five men came up and wiped my tears.

From NPR

With tears in their eyes, she said, they told her the truth.

From CNN

Then we came to someone who was in tears.

From Huffington Post

The stock market has been on a tear this week in both directions.

From NPR

They often begin with a moment of banality: a visit to a new town, an academic's research project, the tearing down of an old building.

From The New Yorker

Let's just say that "hot" brings good tears to the eyes.

From Baltimore Sun

Many of those cops had tears in their eyes.

From New York Daily News

They ultimately want to study reactions across gender to tears from men, women and children.

From TIME

Still, that wasn't enough, and the building was torn down a few months later.

From OregonLive.com

Some break down in tears as they speak.

From TIME

There is a reverent feeling and lots of tears.

From Huffington Post

She can be a con artist and is able to turn on fake tears.

From Huffington Post

And for the past few years, the company has been on a tear.

From CNBC

And people in particular, in that his speaking about his daughters brings him to tears.

From Huffington Post

It's like your heart is torn open for the longest time.

From ThinkProgress

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of tear?