What does "tear" mean?

1. (from the eye) a drop of salty liquid that comes from your eye when you cry or feel pain. 2. (a hole) a hole or split in something like paper, cloth, or skin. 3. (to pull apart) to pull something apart into pieces using force. 4. (to move fast) to move very quickly or with a lot of energy. 5. (a rampage) a period of time where someone does something with a lot of energy or success. 6. (computing) a visual error on a screen where the top and bottom of a picture do not match.

tear — meaning, definition & examples

Word

Infinitive

tear

Past

tore

Past participle

torn

01from the eye

A2 · Elementary Countable noun

n. a drop of salty liquid that comes from your eye when you cry or feel pain.

n. a drop of clear, saline liquid secreted by the lacrimal glands in response to emotion or irritation.

“A single tear ran down her cheek as she said goodbye to her friend.”

“The actor's ability to produce a tear on command during the final scene left the audience in stunned silence.”

Synonyms

droplet

02a hole

B1 · Intermediate Countable noun

n. a hole or split in something like paper, cloth, or skin.

n. a hole or opening produced by pulling a material apart with force.

“He noticed a small tear in his jacket after walking through the bushes.”

“The restorer carefully examined the tear in the canvas, determining that the structural integrity of the painting remained intact.”

Synonyms

rip split hole

Antonyms

mend repair

03to pull apart

B1 · Intermediate

v. to pull something apart into pieces using force.

v. to pull a material apart by force; transitive when an object is being destroyed and intransitive when the material fails.

“Be careful not to tear the wrapping paper while you open the gift.”

“The high winds threatened to tear the sails, forcing the crew to lower them before the storm reached its peak.”

Synonyms

rip shred

Antonyms

sew join

04to move fast

B2 · Upper Intermediate Informal

v. to move very quickly or with a lot of energy.

v. to move or act with great speed or violence. Often used with a directional preposition.

“The kids were tearing around the garden all afternoon.”

“The car went tearing down the narrow street, narrowly missing the parked vehicles on the corner.”

Synonyms

dash race rush

Antonyms

crawl stroll

05a rampage

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Informal · American English

n. a period of time where someone does something with a lot of energy or success.

n. a period of intense activity or a streak of success, often used in sports or business contexts.

“The team has been on a tear lately, winning their last five games.”

“After the new CEO took over, the company went on a tear, acquiring three smaller competitors in less than six months.”

Synonyms

streak spree rampage

06computing

C2 · Proficiency Uncountable noun Computing Technical

n. a visual error on a screen where the top and bottom of a picture do not match.

n. a visual artifact in video display where information from two or more frames is shown in a single screen draw.

“I enabled vertical sync to stop the screen tear during the game.”

“The reviewer noted significant horizontal tear during high-motion sequences, suggesting the graphics driver required further optimisation.”

Synonyms

screen tearing

Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word “tear” in context.

Verb

01. repair a tear

“The tailor managed to repair a small tear in the sleeve of my jacket.”

verb + noun

02. shed a tear

“She shed a tear when she watched the final scene of the movie.”

verb + noun

03. wipe away a tear

“He quietly wiped away a tear as he said goodbye to his old friends.”

verb + adv + noun

Adjective

04. bitter tears

“The athlete wept bitter tears after losing the championship by a single point.”

adj + noun

05. tiny tear

“I noticed a tiny tear in the corner of the page.”

adj + noun

Noun

06. flood of tears

“The child burst into a flood of tears when his ice cream fell on the ground.”

noun + of + noun

07. tear duct

“The doctor explained that a blocked tear duct was causing the irritation.”

noun + noun

Preposition

08. in tears

“The news left everyone in tears.”

prep + noun

“Félix Mourinho died in June 2017 and, when that comes up in the documentary, there are tears.”

The Guardian 18 Aug 2026

“In her eyes, there is sadness, but no tears.”

Al Jazeera 15 Aug 2026

From Middle English teren, from Old English teran (“to tear, lacerate”), from Proto-Germanic teraną (“to tear, tear apart, rip”), from Proto-Indo-European der- (“to tear, tear apart”). Cognate with Scots tere, teir, tair (“to rend, lacerate, wound, rip, tear out”), Dutch teren (“to eliminate, efface, live, survive by consumption”), German zehren (“to consume, misuse”), German zerren (“to tug, rip, tear”), Danish tære (“to consume”), Swedish tära (“to fret, consume, deplete, use up”), Icelandic tæra (“to clear, corrode”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Ancient Greek δέρω (dérō, “to skin”), Albanian ther (“to slay, skin, pierce”). Doublet of tire.

From Middle English teer (“tear”), from Old English tēar, from Proto-West Germanic tahr, from Proto-Germanic tahrą (“tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dáḱru- (“tears”). Cognates include Old Norse tár (Danish tåre and Norwegian tåre), Old High German zahar (German Zähre), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐍂 (tagr), Irish deoir and Latin lacrima.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NOUN

tear(B2)

ADJECTIVE