tear

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“
I wrote to-day to your father, your excellent father, "exclaimed Dona Perfecta, with all the physiognomic signs that make their appearance when a tear is about to be shed.

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Definitions (79)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (30)

  1. transitive verb To pull apart or into pieces by force; rend.
  2. transitive verb To make (an opening) by ripping: tore a hole in my stocking.
  3. transitive verb To lacerate (the skin, for example).
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (36)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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Examples (50)

  • The only person who shed a tear was her housekeeper. —  Garwood, Julie - Mercy
  • But the scans showed he has no tear which is very good news, just some scar tissue, '' team spokesman Michael Owen-Smith said at a South Africa training session. —  Daily News & Analysis
  • I suppose my pathetic west coast usa accent isn't hot. * tear* —  AfterEllen.com - Because visibility matters
  • Just that whole part about Okazaki having nothing in his life was really sad (and aside from the ending in Crisis Core, probably the closest I will come to shedding a tear from a Japanese animation-based story) 10? thats a lot. —  Aussie-Nintendo.com Forums
  • A giant cyst was discovered by Yankees doctors after Rodriguez reported experiencing tightness in the area, and Philippon found that the tear was the cause of the large cyst. —  SI.com
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This word has been looked up 184 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

emotion ·  grief ·  pain ·  cry ·  smile ·  joy ·  blood ·  sigh ·  sweat ·  breath ·  sympathy

Used in the same contextWord Family

tear:   tears ·  tore ·  tearing ·  torn
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English teren, from Old English teran; see der- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English, from Old English tēar; see dakru- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English teren, teeren (preterit tar, past participle toren), from Anglo-Saxon teran (preterit tær, past participle toren), rend, tear, = Old Saxon far-terian, destroy, = Dutch teren = Middle Low German teren, consume, = Old High German firzeran, loose, destroy, tear, Middle High German zern (rer-zern), German zehren, misuse, consume, = Icelandic tæra = Swedish tära = Danish tære, consume, = Goth, ga-tairan, break, destroy, = Greek δέρειν, flay (see derm, etc.), = Old Bulgarian dera, tear.
  2. from tear, v.
  3. from Middle English teer, ter, tere, tear, from Anglo-Saxon teár, tǣr, contr. of *tahur, *teahor, tæhher = OFries. tār = Old High German zahar, zahhar, Middle High German zaher (*zacher) (plural zähere), zār, German zähre = Icelandic tār = Swedish tår = Danish taar, taare = Gothic (Moesogothic) tagr = Greek δάκρυ, δάκρυον (also, with additional suffix, δάκρυμα = Old Latin *dacruma, dacrima, lacrima, later erroneously lachrima, lachryma (later Italian lagrima = Spanish lágrima = Portuguese lagrima = French larme), = Old Irish dacr, dēr, a tear; usually referred, as being ‘bitter’ (causing the eyes to smart), to √ dak (Greek δάκνειν), Sanskrit √ daç, bite (so Sanskrit açru, tear, to √ aç, be sharp: see acute, edge).
  4. from tear, n.
 

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