TEAR OFF • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tear off

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/tɛr ɔf/ 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 off'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tear off" Quotes from Famous Books

... decently and in order; no doubt, many reprehensible things were being done, but they were being done quietly: outwardly, so far as was possible, a respectable front was preserved. It was Mr. Kipling's distinction to tear off the mask of Imperialism as a needless and irritating encumbrance; he had too much sense of reality—too much humour, indeed—to want to portray Empire-builders as a company of plaster saints. Like an enfant ...

— Old and New Masters • Robert Lynd

... they are subjected to is like that of the Flat-Head Indian pappooses. At five or ten or fifteen years old they put their hands up to their foreheads and ask, What are they strapping down my brains in this way for? So they tear off the sacred bandages of the great Flat-Head tribe, and there follows a mighty rush of blood to the long-compressed region. This accounts, in the most lucid manner, for those sudden freaks with which certain children of this class ...

— Elsie Venner • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... behaviour and of what he considered her repentance. She talked a great deal of religion, and stood much on the goodness of her past life. The mob raged terribly as she passed through the streets on her way to Tyburn. The women especially screamed, "Tear off her hat; let us see her face! The devil will fetch her!" and threw stones and mud, pitiless in their hatred. After execution her corpse was thrust into a hackney-coach and driven to Surgeons' Hall for dissection; the skeleton is ...

— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury

... crystal pools among the rocks, fish have been left by the tide, and as you step over the congewoi, whose teats spurt out jets of water to the pressure of your foot, large silvery bream and gaily-hued parrot-fish rush off and hide themselves from view. But tear off a piece of congewoi, open it, and throw the sanguinary-coloured delicacy into the water, and presently you will see the parrot-fish dart out eagerly, and begin to tear it asunder with their long, irregular, and needle-like teeth, whilst the more cautious and lordly bream, with wary eye and ...

— By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories • Louis Becke

... conception of scones, I hurried like a haggard ghost from tent to tent, seeking the forbidden thing. Cook on the backs of the little mirrors hanging from the pole hooks!... Will it wash off?... No! Cut it out with a penknife! Down on your knees and tear off the label from the wrong side of another carpet! (Memo: Must do the one in the dining-tent when the people are asleep for the night.) Cram three Cook towels into my pockets. Hastily pin a handkerchief over the name on a white bit of a tent wall. Must ...

— It Happened in Egypt • C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson

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