different between rift vs tear

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?ft, IPA^(key): /??ft/
• Rhymes: -?ft

Etymology 1

Middle English rift, of North Germanic origin; akin to Danish rift, Norwegian Bokmål rift (“breach”), Old Norse rífa (“to tear”). More at rive.

Noun

rift (plural rifts)

1. A chasm or fissure.

   My marriage is in trouble: the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.

   The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.

2. A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, page 130:

     I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.

3. A shallow place in a stream; a ford.

Derived terms

• rift valley

Translations

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (intransitive) To form a rift; to split open.
2. (transitive) To cleave; to rive; to split.

   to rift an oak

   • to the dread rattling thunder / Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak / With his own bolt

   • 1822, William Wordsworth, "A Jewish Family (in a small valley opposite St. Goar, upon the Rhine)" 9-11, [1]

     The Mother—her thou must have seen, / In spirit, ere she came / To dwell these rifted rocks between.

   • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter III, [2]

     he stopped rigid as one petrified and gazed through the rifted logs of the raft into the water.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (obsolete outside Scotland and northern Britain) To belch.

Etymology 3

Verb

rift (obsolete)

1. past participle of rive

   The mightie trunck halfe rent, with ragged rift

   Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefull drift.

Anagrams

• FTIR, frit

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the verb rive

Noun

rift f or m (definite singular rifta or riften, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “rift” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb rive or riva

Noun

rift f (definite singular rifta, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *rift?, *riftij?, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h?reb?- (“to cover; arch over; vault”). Cognate with Old High German peinrefta (“legwear; leggings”), Old Norse ript, ripti (“a kind of cloth; linen jerkin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rift/

Noun

rift n (nominative plural rift)

1. a veil; curtain; cloak

Related terms

• rifte

Descendants

• Middle English: rift

Romanian

Etymology

From French rift.

Noun

rift n (plural rifturi)

1. rift

Declension

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular present rifts, present participle riftin, past riftit, past participle riftit)

1. to belch, burp

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English teren, from Old English teran (“to tear, lacerate”), from Proto-Germanic *teran? (“to tear, tear apart, rip”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”). Cognate with Scots tere, teir, tair (“to rend, lacerate, wound, rip, tear out”), Dutch teren (“to eliminate, efface, live, survive by consumption”), German zehren (“to consume, misuse”), German zerren (“to tug, rip, tear”), Danish tære (“to consume”), Swedish tära (“to fret, consume, deplete, use up”), Icelandic tæra (“to clear, corrode”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Ancient Greek ???? (dér?, “to skin”), Albanian ther (“to slay, skin, pierce”). Doublet of tire.

Pronunciation 1

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tâ, IPA^(key): /t??/
• (US) enPR: târ, IPA^(key): /t??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophone: tare

Verb

tear (third-person singular simple present tears, present participle tearing, simple past tore, past participle torn or (now colloquial and nonstandard) tore)

2. (transitive) To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
   • 1886, Eleanor Marx-Aveling, translator, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, 1856, Part III Chapter XI,

     He suffered, poor man, at seeing her so badly dressed, with laceless boots, and the arm-holes of her pinafore torn down to the hips; for the charwoman took no care of her.

3. (transitive) To injure as if by pulling apart.

4. (transitive) To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.

5. (transitive) To make (an opening) with force or energy.

6. (transitive, often with off or out) To remove by tearing.

7. (transitive, of structures, with down) To demolish

8. (intransitive) To become torn, especially accidentally.

9. (intransitive) To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
   • 2019, Lana Del Rey, "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing":

     I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown. 24/7 Sylvia Plath.

10. (intransitive) To smash or enter something with great force.

Synonyms

• (break): rend, rip
• (remove by tearing): rip out, tear off, tear out

Related terms

Translations

Noun

tear (plural tears)

1. A hole or break caused by tearing.

   A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.

2. (slang) A rampage.

   to go on a tear

Derived terms

• on a tear
• wear and tear

Translations

Derived terms

• tearsheet

Etymology 2

From Middle English teer, ter, tere, tear, from Old English t?ar, t?r, tæhher, teagor, *teahor (“drop; tear; what is distilled from anything in drops, nectar”), from Proto-West Germanic *tah(h)r, from Proto-Germanic *tahr? (“tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dá?ru- (“tears”).

Cognates include Old Norse tár (Danish tåre and Norwegian tåre), Old High German zahar (German Zähre), Gothic ???????????????? (tagr), Irish deoir and Latin lacrima.

Pronunciation 2

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tî, IPA^(key): /t??/
• (General American) enPR: tîr, IPA^(key): /t??/
• Homophone: tier (layer or rank)

Noun

tear (plural tears)

2. A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.
3. Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
4. (glass manufacture) A partially vitrified bit of clay in glass.
5. That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

tear (third-person singular simple present tears, present participle tearing, simple past and past participle teared)

1. (intransitive) To produce tears.

   Her eyes began to tear in the harsh wind.

Translations

Anagrams

• 'eart, Ater, Reta, aret, arte-, rate, tare, tera-

Galician

Etymology

Tea (“cloth”) +? -ar. Compare Portuguese tear and Spanish telar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /te?a?/

Noun

tear m (plural teares)

1. loom

References

• “tear” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “tear” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “tear” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Middle English

Noun

tear

1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of tere (“tear”)

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *tah(h)r, from Proto-Germanic *tahr?.

Germanic cognates include Old Frisian t?r, Old High German zahar, Old Norse tár, Gothic ???????????????? (tagr).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tæ???r/

Noun

t?ar m

1. tear (drop of liquid from the tear duct)

Declension

Derived terms

• t?eran

Descendants

• English: tear

Portuguese

Etymology

From teia +? -ar.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /te.?a?/
• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /?tj.ar/
• Hyphenation: te?ar

Noun

tear m (plural teares)

1. loom (machine used to make cloth out of thread)
   • 1878, Joaquim Pedro Oliveira Martins, O hellenismo e a civilisação christan, publ. by the widow Bertand & Co., page 24.

West Frisian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

tear c (plural tearen, diminutive tearke)

1. fold
2. crease

Further reading

• “tear (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011