tear one's hair

Idioms

Also, tear out one's hair. Be greatly upset or distressed, as in I'm tearing my hair over these errors. This expression alludes to literally tearing out one's hair in a frenzy of grief or anger, a usage dating from a.d. 1000. Today it is generally hyperbolic.

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.

It is folly to tear one's hair in sorrow, as if grief could be assuaged by baldness.—Cicero.

From Many Thoughts of Many Minds A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age by Klopsch, Louis

One could tear one's hair to see him tied down by this large family till all his best days are gone.'

From The Pillars of the House, V1 by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

No reason to tear one's hair over that!

From A Russian Gentleman by Aksakov, S. T. (Sergei Timofeevich)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023