torn

[tawrn, tohrn]

verb

1. past participle of tear.

torn

/ tɔːn /

verb

1. the past participle of tear 1

2. slang,  an unexpected event or circumstance has upset one's plans

adjective

1. split or cut

2. divided or undecided, as in preference

   he was torn between staying and leaving

Other Word Forms

• untorn adjective

Example Sentences

A vast blaze has torn through the historic Bernaga Monastery in northern Italy, the Italian fire service said Sunday, forcing the evacuation of 22 cloistered nuns.

Read more on Barron's

When mum told me she'd been already in touch with a university and everything was arranged, I was torn between admiration and confusion.

Read more on BBC

Instead, as soon as they stepped out of the courtroom with their children, she was torn from her husband's arms and thrown to the ground by immigration officers as they detained him.

Read more on BBC

Freud wrote that when his father died he felt “torn up by the roots,” and that is how my husband seems to me: tossing through the universe alone.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Several of her books involve love triangles in which a woman is torn between two men, one of whom readers will recognize as patently unsuitable before her protagonist does.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• broken 
• cracked 
• damaged www.thesaurus.com
• divided 
• mangled www.thesaurus.com
• ripped 
• ruptured www.thesaurus.com
• severed