| 释义 |
tear someone/thing apart1Destroy something, especially good relations between people: a bloody civil war had torn the country apart...- It would, perhaps, be an exaggeration to say that the worsening Hindu-Muslim divide in India threatens to tear the country apart, but certainly relations between the country's two major communities are as bad as they have ever been.
- I imagine that sort of thing ruins lives, destroys marriages, tears families apart, and so on.
- For example, in some cases, as $m rises past some optimum, the flow of energy starts to tear the system apart, to destroy order.
Synonyms divide, split, split down the middle, sever, break apart, disunite, rupture literary rend, rip asunder, cleave rare sunder, rive, dissever 2Upset someone greatly: stop crying—it’s tearing me apart...- She tore me apart, demeaning me and bruising my ego greatly.
- The fact that Sen would be getting hurt in the end tore him apart.
- Leaving this life and Hannah behind - the thought was already hurting him, tearing him apart.
3Criticize someone or something harshly: Mum tore us apart with a real tongue-lashing...- Critic Pauline Kael tore Gimme Shelter apart, charging that the Maysles, along with editor and co-director Charlotte Zwerin, were involved in arranging the entire debacle, and that the resulting film was a sham.
- Afterward, half-a-dozen young philosophy students went up to her and, being incredibly nasty and critical, tore her apart for the way she had delivered the talk.
- Our worst fears about the more extreme critics tearing CIA apart when the new administration came in proved groundless.
See parent entry: tear |