rend
Americanverb (used with object)
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to separate into parts with force or violence.
The storm rent the ship to pieces.
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to tear apart, split, or divide.
racial tension that is rending the nation.
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to pull or tear violently (often followed by away, off, up, etc.).
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to tear (one's garments or hair) in grief, rage, etc.
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to disturb (the air) sharply with loud noise.
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to harrow or distress (the heart) with painful feelings.
verb (used without object)
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to split or tear something.
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to become torn or split.
verb
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to tear with violent force or to be torn in this way; rip
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(tr) to tear or pull (one's clothes, etc), esp as a manifestation of rage or grief
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(tr) (of a noise or cry) to disturb (the air, silence, etc) with a shrill or piercing tone
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(tr) to pain or distress (the heart, conscience, etc)
Synonym Usage
See tear 2.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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rendsimple
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rendssimple
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have rentperfect
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has rentperfect
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am rendingprogressive
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are rendingprogressive
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is rendingprogressive
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have been rendingperfect progressive
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has been rendingperfect progressive
Past
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rentsimple
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had rentperfect
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was rendingprogressive
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were rendingprogressive
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had been rendingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing rend
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"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
Some — the ones that rend your very soul — you find a way to mend.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2020
“It takes little to rend the seams,” he said.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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
Sudden as the flash that rends the skies, as the bolt that blasts the oak, the truth burst upon me!
From Ellen Middleton—A Tale by Fullerton, Georgiana
The median rent for apartments with three or more bedrooms is $5,495 citywide, according to StreetEasy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
There were whistles, Signal chats, legal observers, carpools, rent funds, and grocery deliveries.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Emma Rose's rent includes the cost of home heating oil and she said the recent increase is "completely ridiculous".
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
A tumultuous year marred by wildfires, tariffs, immigration raids, increasing rent and labor costs saw some of the city’s most famous restaurants closing, from Michelin-starred fine dining to cozy mom-and-pop spots.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
Ba’s ship ticket, the money advanced for purchases on his trip, the rent for our building .
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
And so a proper rending of garments was had.
From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2024
Holley is volcanically self-expressive in his visual art, whether rending tiny wires into human profiles or planning massive statues from uncut granite and gleaming metal.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2023
To Polley, more heart rending was that it proved that such a conversation is possible to have, in a hayloft or anywhere else.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 23, 2022
In that trio of songs, Spyres the Bel Canto star was most in his element: his tenor both riveting and rending, his high notes both tossed off and made to bloom with long crescendos.
From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2022
A noise of rending and crashing came dully through the ponderous stone.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
