tear up

verb

tore up; torn up; tearing up; tears up

transitive verb

1

: to damage, remove, or effect an opening in

tore up the street to lay a new water main

2

: to perform or compete with great success on, in, or against

couples tearing up the dance floor

a batter who's tearing up the league

Examples of tear up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Ritter has been tearing up Triple-A for the Albuquerque Isotopes and was named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Month on Thursday after slashing .381/.445/.918 with 10 doubles, 12 homers and 31 RBIs in May. —Patrick Saunders, Denver Post, 6 June 2025

Infield prospect Ronny Mauricio has been tearing up Triple-A since returning from a lengthy ACL reconstruction rehab. —Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 30 May 2025

Rubber outsoles provide traction for tearing up the dance floor at a wedding or heading out for a day of seeing tourist attractions, and lightly padded insoles cushion your feet with every step. —Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 23 May 2025

By the end, moviegoers were weeping and swatting at each other trying to get video of Mescal, who was also tearing up. —Ellise Shafer, Variety, 21 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1620, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for tear up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup