take apart

verb

took apart; taken apart; taking apart; takes apart

transitive verb

1

: to disconnect the pieces of (something) : disassemble

take a machine apart

While the giant engines at the Waterworks were being taken apart piece by piece and examined for damage, temporary sources of power were sought.

—Jim Murphy

2

informal : to treat (someone or something) roughly or harshly : to tear into

The voice in his head that normally took him apart was cutting him some slack. Every now and then, it actually gave him some credit.

—David Corbett

Examples of take apart in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

With painstaking precision, Khawaja's team took apart the CDA data, and their new analysis found evidence for organic molecules that had been missed the first time around. —Keith Cooper, Space.com, 2 Oct. 2025

Vasilas practiced in his apartment at night after dinner by taking apart a coat and putting it back together over and over. —Judith Kohler, Denver Post, 24 Sep. 2025

This is a more involved operation that involves taking apart a lot more of the grinder. —Noah Kaufman, Bon Appetit Magazine, 23 Sep. 2025

The police detective testified that Miramontes went home after the shooting and had difficulty taking apart the gun. —Rosalio Ahumada, Sacbee.com, 13 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1744, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for take apart

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