rend

American  

[rend] / rɛnd /

verb (used with object)

• rends,
  present (3rd person singular)
• rent,
  past participle,  past
• rending
  present participle

1. to separate into parts with force or violence.

   The storm rent the ship to pieces.

2. to tear apart, split, or divide.

   racial tension that is rending the nation.

   Synonyms:

   rupture, fracture, chop, cleave, sever, sunder, rive

3. to pull or tear violently (often followed by away, off, up, etc.).

4. to tear (one's garments or hair) in grief, rage, etc.

5. to disturb (the air) sharply with loud noise.

6. to harrow or distress (the heart) with painful feelings.

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verb (used without object)

• rends,
  present (3rd person singular)
• rent,
  past participle,  past
• rending
  present participle

1. to split or tear something.

2. to become torn or split.

rend British  

/ rɛnd /

verb

1. to tear with violent force or to be torn in this way; rip

2. (tr) to tear or pull (one's clothes, etc), esp as a manifestation of rage or grief

3. (tr) (of a noise or cry) to disturb (the air, silence, etc) with a shrill or piercing tone

4. (tr) to pain or distress (the heart, conscience, etc)

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Synonym Usage

See tear ².

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• rendible
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• rending
  present
• rent
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• rend
  simple
• rends
  simple
• have rent
  perfect
• has rent
  perfect
• am rending
  progressive
• are rending
  progressive
• is rending
  progressive
• have been rending
  perfect progressive
• has been rending
  perfect progressive

Past

• rent
  simple
• had rent
  perfect
• was rending
  progressive
• were rending
  progressive
• had been rending
  perfect progressive

Future

• will rend
  simple
• will have rent
  perfect
• will be rending
  progressive
• will have been rending
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of rend

First recorded before 950; Middle English renden, Old English rendan; cognate with Old Frisian renda

Explanation

The verb rend means to tear with force or violence, or into many pieces. Your parents won't be happy if your new kitten decides to rend their brand new curtains with her tiny claws. Tear, rip, and rend are all synonyms, but it's a question of degree. Of the three, rend implies the most violent separation. You can also use rend figuratively to express great emotional distress or to describe a sharp, piercing sound. If you're betrayed by a friend, it rends your heart right out of your chest.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rend rends rent rending

"If global debt resumes its rising rend going forward, the debt rollercoaster since the pandemic will look nothing more than a temporary deviation around its long-term rising trend."

From Reuters ● Sep. 13, 2023

Some people have wondered if his departure in early 2016 didn’t somehow rend the fabric of space-time and send us hurtling into a dimension of alternate outcomes.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2021

And that remains its role now, as thousands of researchers join forces in a collective mission: to better know SARS-CoV-2 and to rend that virus’s complexities into a blueprint to plan its containment and control.

From Scientific American ● Mar. 10, 2021

His tales of the ghost- and history-haunted English countryside, reissued recently by Oxford University Press, rend the veil between everyday existence and a dark and chaotic netherworld.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 18, 2018

Then the Black Captain rose in his stirrups and cried aloud in a dreadful voice, speaking in some forgotten tongue words of power and terror to rend both heart and stone.

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Noted playwright Hudes pens a stunning debut novel that rends conventional notions of motherhood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2025

We find her at a bleak roadside cemetery where her grief rends the air.

From BBC ● May 9, 2023

What’s left behind after a natural disaster so powerful that it rends the foundations of a society?

From Washington Times ● Feb. 10, 2023

As a result, Alisa makes a terrible choice that rends the family forever.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 1, 2022

When he at last rebels and privily snips off his hair and rends his sashes and furbelows, she weeps, not because of the loss of material, but because of the loss of an ideal.

From Atlantic Classics, Second Series by Jane Addams

What mattered to her was whether he could pay the rent.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

Ratchford also told the FBI that when the hijackers had fallen behind with paying their rent, Bayoumi had paid it.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

Household spending was up for a third quarter running, led by the buying of mutual funds and other investments, passenger cars and rent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

“No one benefits when real-estate listings are not public and you have to go through one website or one company” to learn about what’s available to buy or rent, she said.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026

My da will be home soon, long before the rent is due, I’d tell her.

From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff

When I defended the author and the decision to run his op-ed, there was more rending of garments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

But if the first go-rounds last year were tragedy—depressing stocks, spiking prices, and rending hearts in both countries—the latest skirmish is starting to look more like farce.

From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026

At the time, police also arrested and charged Clemmons’ sister, his aunt, a cousin and his half-brother with a variety of crimes, including rending medical aid to the wounded Clemmons.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2022

At least, I think that horrid screaming, silent sobbing and rending of garments indicates confusion.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 24, 2022

A rending, splintering sound made them all look back at the house.

From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman

Related Words

• rive