释义 |
tearer|ˈtɛərə(r)| [f. tear v.1 + -er1.] 1. a. One who or that which tears or rends. In quot. 1828 applied to a (? canine) tooth; in quot. 1862, to a mechanical device for tearing something; in quot. 1886 to a ‘tearing’ cold.
1625Massinger New Way v. i, I know you are a tearer. But I'll have first your fangs pared off, and then Come nearer to you. 1682Sec. Plea Nonconf. 4 The Tearers of the Church have made at me,..but..have hurt their Nails and Fingers. 1719D'Urfey Pills II. 81 To Wearers and Tearers Of Manteau and Gown. 1828Fleming Brit. Zool. 9 In the lower jaw [of the badger], the bruiser is small, the chewer large, and there is an additional tearer. 1862Jrnl. Soc. Arts X. 329/2 The doughy mass is put into an iron box, or tearer, in which an iron cylinder, with iron teeth, rapidly revolves, tearing it into shreds. 1886C. Keene Let. in Life xi. (1892) 359, I suppose I've been boasting of my immunity from colds, for I've just had a tearer, so hoarse that I couldn't sound a note. †b. tearer of God, a blasphemer or profane swearer (see tear v.1 3 b). Obs.
a1550Hye Way to Spyttel H. 851 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 61 These blasphemers and these God terers. 1570Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 2303/1 Blasphemous and abominable swearers or rather tearers of God. c. tearer-downer (U.S.), one who tears down, a carping critic (cf. tear v.1 3 h).
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slag, §421/1 Critic; opposer..tearer-downer. 1944[see builder c]. 1955J. D. Salinger in New Yorker 29 Jan. 28/1 I'm just so sick of pedants and conceited little tearer-downers I could scream. 2. A person who tears or rushes along or about; a ranter, roisterer, swaggerer, bully.
1625,1682[see sense 1]. 1664Cotton Scarron. i. Poet Wks. (1717) 8 A huffing Jack, a plund'ring Tearer. 1693Congreve Old Bach. iv. ix, Hist! hist! bully; dost thou see those tearers [Araminta and Belinda masked]? 1828Webster, Tearer,..one that rages or raves with violence. 1862M'Gilvray Poems (ed. 2) 56 (E.D.D.) For faith she is a tearer, She frights the very swine. |