tear apart

verb

tore apart; torn apart; tearing apart; tears apart

1

: to completely destroy (something) by tearing it into pieces

I couldn't open the box nicely, so I just tore it apart.

—often used figuratively

The robbers tore apart the house looking for the money.

We tore the other team apart in yesterday's game.

We can't agree, and it's tearing our family apart.

2

: to criticize (someone or something) in a very harsh or angry way especially by describing weaknesses, flaws, etc.

The article tears apart the company's handling of the situation.

They tore him apart when he left.

Examples of tear apart in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The building itself was then torn apart by builders scavenging stone, lead, glass and timber. — Literary Hub, 28 Sep. 2026

Ethiopia, the world’s largest landlocked country, has been torn apart over the past decade by the divergent goals of ethnic political groups seeking to keep the country decentralized, and the centralizing crusade of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. — Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 23 Sep. 2026

Catherine Palmer, John Palmer’s wife, described feeling like her world was torn apart, that her husband’s killing broke her family. — Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 22 Sep. 2026

Blade Runner got torn apart by Pauline Kael in The New Yorker. — Jimmy Chin, HollywoodReporter, 14 Sep. 2026

Rhymes for tear apart

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