TEAR DOWN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Tear down

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/tɛr daʊn/ Listen

verb

Tear v. t. (past tore, obs. tare; past part. torn; pres. part. tearing)

1.

To separate by violence; to pull apart by force; to rend; to lacerate; as, to tear cloth; to tear a garment; to tear the skin or flesh. "Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator."

2.

Hence, to divide by violent measures; to disrupt; to rend; as, a party or government torn by factions.

3.

To rend away; to force away; to remove by force; to sunder; as, a child torn from its home. "The hand of fate Hath torn thee from me."

4.

To pull with violence; as, to tear the hair.

5.

To move violently; to agitate. "Once I loved torn ocean's roar."

To tear a cat, to rant violently; to rave; especially applied to theatrical ranting. (Obs.)

To tear down, to demolish violently; to pull or pluck down.

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 foundation of government or order.

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Etymology of 'Tear down'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tear down" Quotes from Famous Books

... quick to catch the point. "And there was a tear down the front of it which looked as if it had been made by the scraping of a saw! I guess if you'll match the shreds we found on the saw with the breaks in that coat front you'll find where the saw got in its ...

— The Call of the Beaver Patrol - or, A Break in the Glacier • V. T. Sherman

... moment when he was on the point of coming out, frightened by the rain and the lightning, he hesitated an instant, and finally drew back: immediately the multitude in their turn broke out like a tempest into cries, curses, howls, threatening to tear down the Vatican and to go and seek their pope themselves. At this noise Cardinal Sforza, more terrified by the popular storm than by the storm in the heavens, advanced on the balcony, and between two thunderclaps, in a moment of silence astonishing ...

— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... The tear down childhood's cheek that flows, Is like the dewdrop on the rose; When next the summer breeze comes by, And waves the bush, the flower is dry. ...

— Many Thoughts of Many Minds - A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age • Various

... folks'll drive out there jest to look at it. I've heard 'em call it a 'colonial mansion,' or some such name as that. It was all run down when Richard come into possession of it, but now it's one o' the finest places in the whole state. That's the way it is with families: one generation'll tear down and another generation'll build up. Richard's buildin' up all that his father tore down, and I'm in hopes his work'll last for ...

— Aunt Jane of Kentucky • Eliza Calvert Hall

... which writhed and twisted as if they were fell shapes that would tear down the passing riders, Arthur became aware that their way was leading downwards, and soon the smell of water rose up ...

— King Arthur's Knights - The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls • Henry Gilbert

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