1.
[syn: lacerate, lacerated, mangled, torn]
2. disrupted by the pull of contrary forces;
- Example: "torn between love and hate"
- Example: "torn by conflicting loyalties"
- Example: "torn by religious dissensions"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Tear \Tear\ (t[^a]r), v. t. [imp. Tore (t[=o]r), ((Obs.
Tare) (t[^a]r); p. p. Torn (t[=o]rn); p. pr. & vb. n.
Tearing.] [OE. teren, AS. teran; akin to OS. farterian to
destroy, D. teren to consume, G. zerren to pull, to tear,
zehren to consume, Icel. t>ae/ra, Goth. gata['i]ran to
destroy, Lith. dirti to flay, Russ. drate to pull, to tear,
Gr. de`rein to flay, Skr. dar to burst. [root]63. Cf. Darn,
Epidermis, Tarre, Tirade.]
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.
[1913 Webster]
Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence, to divide by violent measures; to disrupt; to rend;
as, a party or government torn by factions.
[1913 Webster]
3. To rend away; to force away; to remove by force; to
sunder; as, a child torn from its home.
[1913 Webster]
The hand of fate
Hath torn thee from me. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
4. To pull with violence; as, to tear the hair.
[1913 Webster]
5. To move violently; to agitate. "Once I loved torn ocean's
roar." --Byron.
[1913 Webster]
To tear a cat, to rant violently; to rave; -- especially
applied to theatrical ranting. [Obs.] --Shak.
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.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Torn \Torn\,
p. p. of Tear.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
torn
adj 1: having edges that are jagged from injury [syn:
lacerate, lacerated, mangled, torn]
2: disrupted by the pull of contrary forces; "torn between love
and hate"; "torn by conflicting loyalties"; "torn by
religious dissensions"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
93 Moby Thesaurus words for "torn":
affected, aggravated, agonized, alienated, broken, burned, burst,
busted, checked, chipped, cleft, cloven, cracked, crazed, cut,
damaged, deteriorated, devoured by, disaffected, disunited,
divided, dowdy, down-at-heel, down-at-the-heels, embittered,
estranged, exacerbated, frayed, frazzled, full of holes, harmed,
holey, hurt, imbued with, impaired, imperfect, impressed,
impressed with, in bits, in pieces, in rags, in shards, in shreds,
in tatters, injured, irreconcilable, irritated, lacerate,
lacerated, mangled, moved, mutilated, obsessed, obsessed by,
patchy, penetrated with, quartered, racked, ragged, raggedy, ratty,
rent, riven, ruptured, scalded, scorched, scruffy, seedy,
seized with, separated, severed, shabby, shattered, shoddy,
shredded, slashed, slit, smashed, splintered, split, sprung,
stricken, tacky, tattered, tatty, the worse for, tortured, touched,
weakened, worse, worse off, worsened, wracked