Definition of "tear"

tear¹

/tɛə/

verb
third-person singular simple present tears, present participle tearing, simple past tore, past participle torn or (now colloquial and nonstandard) tore
1. (transitive) To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
  Quotations
  1886, Gustave Flaubert, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Madame Bovary, published 1856, Part III Chapter XI
  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.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. (transitive) To injure as if by pulling apart.
3. (transitive) To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.
4. (transitive) To make (an opening) with force or energy.
5. (transitive, often with off or out) To remove by tearing, or with sudden great force.
  Quotations
  [A] surge of muddy water tore him free from his sandy nook and tumbled him down the gully.
  2012, Max Overton, Horemheb
6. (transitive, of structures, with down) To demolish.
7. (intransitive) To become torn, especially accidentally.
8. (intransitive) To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
  Quotations
  I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown. 24/7 Sylvia Plath.
  2019, Lana Del Rey, Hope Is a Dangerous Thing
9. (intransitive) To smash or enter something with great force.
noun
plural tears
1. A hole or break caused by tearing.
2. (slang) A rampage.

tear²

/tɪə/

noun
plural tears
1. A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.
  Quotations
  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.
  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, act V, scene ii, page 338
  '[…] 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". […]'
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus
2. Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
  Quotations
  Let Araby extol her happy coast, / Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears.
  1717, William Congreve, Samuel Croxall, John Dryden, Laurence Eusden, John Ozell, “Book X”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
3. (glass manufacture) A partially vitrified bit of clay in glass.
4. That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
  Quotations
  Without meed of some melodious tear. Begin then, Sisters of the sacred well [...]
  1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago, Cambridge: Printed by Thomas Buck, and Roger Daniel, published 1638, page 131
verb
third-person singular simple present tears, present participle tearing, simple past and past participle teared
1. (intransitive) To produce tears.

Definition of "tear"

tear1

verb

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noun

tear2

noun

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verb

tear¹

tear²