asunder

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The Boy stood quite still, submitting his heart to that first quick rending and tearing asunder which is only the initial agony of parting How soon?"

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adverb Into separate parts or pieces: broken asunder.
  2. adverb Apart from each other either in position or in direction: The curtains had been drawn asunder.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Then did the Queen let the ring be broken asunder, and copper was found to be inside it Thereon was the Queen wroth, and said that Olaf might play her false in more things than this one That same winter went King Olaf up into Ringariki and introduced Christianity there. —  The Sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and of Harald The Tyrant (Harald Haardraade)
  • With a rending sound as of a giant web torn asunder, the legions of Hampton and Cary, posted near the house of the free negro Robinson, came into action and held in check the four brigades High upon the plateau, near Jackson's line, above the wild confusion of the retreating troops, appeared in the blaze of the midday sun, hatless, on steeds reeking from the four miles' gallop from that centre where the battle did not join to this left where it did, the generals Johnston and Beauregard. —  The Long Roll
  • "It is no use winning unless there be a galerie to look on and applaud Time hung on his hands like a wearisome wallet of stones When all the habits of life are suddenly rent asunder, they are like a rope cut in two. —  Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida Selected from the Works of Ouida
  • If we imagine the rabbit sawn asunder, as it were, by a plane passing through the head and tail, that would be the median plane, and parts on either side of it are lateral, and left or right according as they lie to the animal's left or right. —  Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
  • The colonists at first thought the island was rent asunder, and rushed out of Granite House This occurred about two o'clock in the morning The sky appeared on fire. —  The Secret of the Island
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English on sundran : on, on; see on + sundran, separately (from sunder, apart).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English a sundir, o sunder, on sunder, etc., from Anglo-Saxon on sundran, apart: see a and sunder.
 

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/əˈsəndər/
by American Heritage

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