Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TEAR, v.t. [pret. tore; pp. torn; old pret. tare, obs. Sax. tæran, to tear; tiran, tyran, tyrian, tyrigan, to fret, gnaw, provoke; Russ. deru, to tear. In Sw. tära is to fret, consume, waste; Dan. tærer, id.; D. teeren, G. zehren, id. These are probably the same word varied in signification, and they coincide with L. tero, Gr. τειρω. In W. tori, Arm. torri, Corn. terhi, is to break; and Syr. תרע, to tear, to rend. Class Dr, No. 42, 51.]

1. To separate by violence or pulling; to rend; to lacerate; as, to tear cloth; to tear a garment; to tear the skin or flesh. We use tear and rip in different senses. To tear is to rend or separate the texture of cloth; to rip is to open a seam, to separate parts sewed together.
2. To wound; to lacerate. The women beat their breasts, their cheeks they tear. Shak.
3. To rend; to break; to form fissures by any violence; as, torrents tear the ground. Dryden.
4. To divide by violent measures; to shatter; to rend; as, a state or government torn by factions. Locke.
5. To pull with violence; as, to tear the hair. Dryden.
6. To remove by violence; to break up. Or on rough seas from their foundation torn. Dryden.
7. To make a violent rent. In the midst, a tearing groan did break / The name of Antony. Shak. To tear from, to separate and take away by force; as, an isle torn from its possessor. The hand of fate / Has torn thee from me. Addison. To tear off, to pull off by violence; to strip. To tear out, to pull or draw out by violence; as, to tear out the eyes. To tear up, to rip up; to remove from a fixed state by violence; as, to tear up a floor; to tear up the foundations of government or order.