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

While there, the two women accidentally lost Bonet’s pet snake Orpheus inside the Eras Tour headliner’s bathroom, resulting in Swift’s house manager having to take apart the musician’s cabinetry in order to get the reptile out. —Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 18 Aug. 2025

The team took apart the malaria problem and tried something new: detect the wingbeat frequency—to distinguish it from other insects—of a female Anopheles in flight and shoot it down. —Robert C. Wolcott, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025

Always busy but inscrutably warm, Davis told me that the Cheval Noir was designed to be taken apart for easy shipping and world travel. —Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 9 Aug. 2025

This can be particularly useful for rectifying staple mistakes, or for taking apart packets that have already been stapled together. —Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 6 Aug. 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