tear apart
Idioms-
Upset or make distraught, as in The parents' divorce tore apart the grandparents . [Second half of 1800s]
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Criticize severely, as in The professor tore her paper apart . [Mid-1900s]
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Search some place completely, as in The police tore the house apart . [Second half of 1900s]
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Separate, especially unwillingly, as in The war tore many families apart .
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.
Over time, as people are uprooted from their agricultural communities as industrialisation tears apart people's familiar attachments, individuals become "alienated", he says.
From BBC
It had teeth as long as his forearm and claws that could tear apart an oak tree.
From Literature
Was the United States tearing apart, just as Mr. Lincoln had warned about a house divided?
From Literature
She tore through their apartment in a rage, pushing aside the salvaged set pieces they’d turned into furniture and pacing wildly, as though she was looking for something to tear apart.
From Literature
By 1860, hundreds of thousands had been moved southward, tearing apart families while fueling the Cotton Kingdom.
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.
