pull apart

verb

pulled apart; pulling apart; pulls apart

1

: to be separated into parts or pieces by pulling

The rolls pull apart easily.

2

: to separate or break (something) into parts or pieces

She pulled the rolls apart with her hands.

—sometimes used figuratively

His gambling problem is pulling the family apart.

3

: to separate (people or animals) in order to stop a fight

Customers stepped in and pulled the two men apart.

Examples of pull apart in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Yet now its limbs are being pulled apart, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, for reasons that remain unclear. — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 2 Sep. 2026

Together, those clues matched a stellar stream tearing from a tight ball of stars called a globular cluster, pulled apart by the gravity of UGC 9050-Dw1. — Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 26 Aug. 2026

When a larger galaxy pulls apart a smaller dwarf galaxy, the dwarf’s stars can stretch into a stream — a cosmic breadcrumb trail of that encounter. — Taylor Nicioli, CNN Money, 13 Aug. 2026

Tension is a force that causes things to pull apart or stretch. — Tim Carter, Hartford Courant, 25 July 2026

Rhymes for pull apart

• counterpart
• art
• cart
• carte
• chart
• dart
• fart
• haart
• mart
• part
• smart
• start