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

This concept is similar to taking apart a Lego structure and rebuilding it elsewhere with the same parts. —Maryna Holovnova, New Atlas, 4 June 2026

For its investigation, Koenigsmann urges Blue Origin to be as transparent as possible with NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration and to study and take apart the physical evidence as soon as possible to identify the causes of failure. —Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 3 June 2026

Fatu took apart the steel steps, but Reigns threw one of the stairs at Fatu’s head. —Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026

Many were taken apart after being dispersed following her 1928 death. —Lily Templeton, Footwear News, 26 May 2026

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