TEAR, n.

1. Tears are the limpid fluid secreted by the lacrymal gland, and appearing in the eyes, or flowing from them. A tear, in the singular, is a drop or a small quantity of that fluid. Tears are excited by passions, particularly by grief. This fluid is also called forth by any injury done to the eye. It serves to moisten the cornea and preserve its transparency, and to remove any dust or fine substance that enters the eye and gives pain.
2. Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter.

A rent; a fissure. [Little used.]

To rave; to rage; to rant; to move and act with turbulent violence; as a mad bull. L'Estrange.

1. To separate by violence or pulling; to rend; to lacerate; as, to tear cloth; to tear a garment; to tear the skin or flesh. We use tear and rip in different senses. To tear is to rend or separate the texture of cloth; to rip is to open a seam, to separate parts sewed together.
2. To wound; to lacerate. The women beat their breasts, their cheeks they tear. Shak.
3. To rend; to break; to form fissures by any violence; as, torrents tear the ground. Dryden.
4. To divide by violent measures; to shatter; to rend; as, a state or government torn by factions. Locke.
5. To pull with violence; as, to tear the hair. Dryden.
6. To remove by violence; to break up. Or on rough seas from their foundation torn. Dryden.
7. To make a violent rent. In the midst, a tearing groan did break / The name of Antony. Shak. To tear from, to separate and take away by force; as, an isle torn from its possessor. The hand of fate / Has torn thee from me. Addison. To tear off, to pull off by violence; to strip. To tear out, to pull or draw out by violence; as, to tear out the eyes. To tear up, to rip up; to remove from a fixed state by violence; as, to tear up a floor; to tear up the foundations of government or order.

1. A drop of the limpid, saline fluid secreted, normally in small amount, by the lachrymal gland, and diffused between the eye and the eyelids to moisten the parts and facilitate their motion. Ordinarily the secretion passes through the lachrymal duct into the nose, but when it is increased by emotion or other causes, it overflows the lids.
   
   

   And yet for thee ne wept she never a tear. Chaucer.

2. To separate by violence; to pull apart by force; to rend; to lacerate; as, to tear cloth; to tear a garment; to tear the skin or flesh.
   
   

   Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator. Shak.

3. To divide or separate on being pulled; to be rent; as, this cloth tears easily.
4. The act of tearing, or the state of being torn; a rent; a fissure.
   
   
   Macaulay.

   Wear and tear. See under Wear, n.

5. A partially vitrified bit of clay in glass.
   
   
   -- Tears of St. Lawrence, the Perseid shower of meteors, seen every year on or about the eve of St. Lawrence, August 9th. -- T. of wine, drops which form and roll down a glass above the surface of strong wine. The phenomenon is due to the evaporation of alcohol from the surface layer, which, becoming more watery, increases in surface tension and creeps up the sides until its weight causes it to break.
6. Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
   
   

   Let Araby extol her happy coast,
   Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears. Dryden.

7. Hence, to divide by violent measures; to disrupt; to rend; as, a party or government torn by factions.
8. To move and act with turbulent violence; to rush with violence; hence, to rage; to rave.
9. That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
   
   
   [R.] "Some melodous tear." Milton.

   * Tear is sometimes used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, tear-distilling, tear-drop, tear- filled, tear-stained, and the like.

10. To rend away; to force away; to remove by force; to sunder; as, a child torn from its home.
    
    

    The hand of fate
    Hath torn thee from me. Addison.

11. To pull with violence; as, to tear the hair.
12. To move violently; to agitate.
    
    
    "Once I loved torn ocean's roar." Byron.

    To tear a cat, to rant violently; to rave; -- especially applied to theatrical ranting. [Obs.] Shak. -- To tear down, to demolish violently; to pull or pluck down. -- To tear off, to pull off by violence; to strip. -- To tear out, to pull or draw out by violence; as, to tear out the eyes. -- To tear up, to rip up; to remove from a fixed state by violence; as, to tear up a floor; to tear up the foundation of government or order.