tears

tear ¹  (târ)

v. tore (tôr, tr), torn (tôrn, trn), tear·ing, tears

v.tr.

1. To pull apart or into pieces by force; rend.

2. To make (an opening) by ripping: tore a hole in my stocking.

3. To lacerate (the skin, for example).

4. To separate forcefully; wrench: tore the wrappings off the present.

5. To divide or disrupt: was torn between opposing choices; a country that was torn by strife.

v.intr.

1. To become torn.

2. To move with heedless speed; rush headlong.

n.

1. The act of tearing.

2. The result of tearing; a rip or rent.

3. A great rush; a hurry.

4. Slang A carousal; a spree.

Phrasal Verbs:

tear around Informal

1. To move about in excited, often angry haste.

2. To lead a wild life.

tear at

1. To pull at or attack violently: The dog tore at the meat.

2. To distress greatly: Their plight tore at his heart.

tear away

To remove (oneself, for example) unwillingly or reluctantly.

tear down

1. To demolish: tear down old tenements.

2. To take apart; disassemble: tear down an engine.

3. To vilify or denigrate.

tear into

To attack with great vigor or violence: tore into the food; tore into his opponent.

tear off Informal

To produce hurriedly and casually: tearing off article after news article.

tear up

1. To tear to pieces.

2. To make an opening in: tore up the sidewalk to add a drain.

Idiom:

tear (one's) hair

To be greatly upset or distressed.

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[Middle English teren, from Old English teran; see der- in Indo-European roots.]

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tearer n.

Synonyms: tear¹, rip¹, rend, split, cleave¹
These verbs mean to separate or pull apart by force. Tear involves pulling something apart or into pieces: "She tore the letter in shreds" (Edith Wharton).
Rip implies rough or forcible tearing: Carpenters ripped up the old floorboards.
Rend usually refers to violent tearing or wrenching apart: "Come as the winds come, when/Forests are rended" (Sir Walter Scott).
To split is to cut or break something into parts or layers, especially along its entire length or along a natural line of division: "They [wood stumps] warmed me twiceonce while I was splitting them, and again when they were on the fire" (Henry David Thoreau).
Cleave most often refers to splitting with or as if with a sharp instrument: The butcher cleft the side of beef into smaller portions.

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tear ²  (tîr)

n.

1.

a. A drop of the clear salty liquid that is secreted by the lachrymal gland of the eye to lubricate the surface between the eyeball and eyelid and to wash away irritants.

b. tears A profusion of this liquid spilling from the eyes and wetting the cheeks, especially as an expression of emotion.

c. tears The act of weeping: criticism that left me in tears.

2. A drop of a liquid or hardened fluid.

intr.v. teared, tear·ing, tears

To fill with tears.

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[Middle English, from Old English tar; see dakru- in Indo-European roots.]

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tears [tɪəz]

pl n

1. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Physiology) the clear salty solution secreted by the lacrimal glands that lubricates and cleanses the surface of the eyeball and inner surface of the eyelids Related adj lachrymal

2. a state of intense frustration (esp in the phrase bored to tears)

in tears weeping

without tears presented so as to be easily assimilated reading without tears

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Tears 

See Also: CRYING

1. Could feel the tears, like fire, coming up —James Baldwin
2. Feel the tears brimming and sloshing in me like water in a glass that is unsteady and too full —Sylvia Plath
3. Generally men’s tears, like the droppings of certain springs, only harden and petrify what they fall on —Walter Savage Landor
4. He [a weeping man] was like a sponge saturated with water, and then squeezed —Leonid Andreyev
5. Like a summer tempest came her tears —Lord Alfred Tennyson

   This also appears as a chapter title in Kenneth Grahame’s contemporary children’s classic, The Wind in the Willows.

6. My tears like berries fell down —W. B. Yeats
7. Produce tears freely like a great actor —Erich Maria Remarque
8. Slow as the winter snow the tears have drifted to mine eyes —Elizabeth Barrett Browning
9. Suspended like shimmering icicles on Maxell’s cheeks were tears —Arthur A. Cohen
10. A teardrop hung out of each blue eye, like a fat woman leaning out of a tenement window —Tom Robbins
11. Teardrops come a-splashin’ down his cheeks like summer rain —Edward A. Guest
12. A tear had slipped down to dangle like sweat at the tip of a nostril —Truman Capote
13. A tear ran down her cheek, turning white with powder, like a tiny ball of snow —Jonathan Valin
14. Tears … brightened her eyes and made them glitter like dark stars in a stormy sky —Frank Swinnerton
15. Tears died as laughter dies away —Dante Gabriel Rossetti
16. Tears fall like soft fruit juice —Rose Tremain
17. Tears fell like a plot —Stevie Smith
18. Tears fill up her eyes like a cup —Jessie Schell
19. Tears … flailing my face like the torn ends of shattered rope —John Updike
20. Tears flooded out of his eyes like the floodwater over a levee —Pat Conroy
21. Tears … flowed down upon him like a bower of willows —Arthur A. Cohen
22. Tears … flowed like fountains —William Wordsworth

    A twist by Guy De Maupassant: “Wept like a fountain.”

23. Tears flow … like a swollen gutter gushing through the streets —Henry Fielding
24. Tears gathered like small pools in the declivation of his eye cups —Arthur A. Cohen
25. Tears glittered in her eyes, deep down, like the sinking reflection of a well —Louise Erdrich
26. Tears glittered like rhinestones on her lashes —Ross Macdonald
27. Tears, like a stream, like a ceaselessly flowing fountain, flowed and flowed —Nikolai V. Gogol
28. Tears like bits of glass formed in his eyes —Leonard Michaels
29. Tears like molten lead surged in her eyes —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
30. Tears … like two little brooks —Carson McCullers
31. Tears … made patterns on his cheeks, like wax trickling down a candle —Julia O’Faolain
32. Tears on his lashes, like silver drops of dew —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
33. Tears rolled down like rain —Elizabeth Spencer
34. Tears … roll one from each eye, like droplets on wax fruit —Ira Wood
35. Tears running down like lemonade —Anne Sexton
36. Tears rushed forth … like mountain mists at length dissolved in rain —Lord Byron

    This simile from Byron’s famous Don Juan has been slightly modernized and shortened. The original first line begins “The tears rush’d forth from her o’erclouded brain, like …”

37. The tears seemed to cause the features of her face to melt and soften like hot wax —George Garrett
38. Tears, silent as a china egg —Marge Piercy
39. Tears, small as sequins, glinting in her narrowed eyes —Miles Gibson
40. Tears streamed down her cheeks, soft and bland like the sides of a Guernsey —John Updike
41. Tears that slipped like melting pellets of sleet down their grieved and angered cheeks —Alice Walker
42. Tears that streamed ceaselessly like a veil to keep her from seeing too clearly —Paul Horgan
43. Tears … they deluge my heart like the rain —Emily Brontë
44. Tears welled up as freely as water from a drinking fountain —Jean Stafford
45. Though the tears had no healing power, they took off the edge of it [pain], like cold water on a burn —Margaret Drabble
46. A woman’s tears, like a dog’s limping, are seldom real —Russian proverb

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

tears - the process of shedding tears (usually accompanied by sobs or other inarticulate sounds); "I hate to hear the crying of a child"; "she was in tears" crying, weeping snivel, sniveling - whining in a tearful manner sobbing, sob - convulsive gasp made while weeping bawling, wailing - loud cries made while weeping bodily function, bodily process, body process, activity - an organic process that takes place in the body; "respiratory activity"

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tears

plural noun crying, weeping, sobbing, wailing, whimpering, blubbering, lamentation She was very near to tears.

in tears weeping, crying, sobbing, whimpering, blubbering, visibly moved He was in tears at the funeral.

Related words
adjectives lacrimal, lachrymal, or lacrymal