different between tear vs press

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

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /p??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Etymology 1

Middle English presse (“throng, crowd, clothespress”), partially from Old English press (“clothespress”) (from Medieval Latin pressa) and partially from Old French presse (Modern French presse) from Old French presser (“to press”), from Latin press?re, from pressus, past participle of premere (“to press”). Displaced native Middle English thring (“press, crowd, throng”) (from Old English þring (“a press, crowd, anything that presses or confines”)).

Noun

press (countable and uncountable, plural presses)

1. (countable) A device used to apply pressure to an item.

2. (countable) A printing machine.

   Synonym: printing press

3. (uncountable, collective) The print-based media (both the people and the newspapers).
4. (countable) A publisher.
5. (countable, especially in Ireland and Scotland) An enclosed storage space (e.g. closet, cupboard).
6. (countable, weightlifting) An exercise in which weight is forced away from the body by extension of the arms or legs.
   • 1974, Charles Gaines & George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, p.22:

     This is the fourth set of benchpresses. There will be five more; then there will be five sets of presses on an inclined bench […].

7. (countable, wagering) An additional bet in a golf match that duplicates an existing (usually losing) wager in value, but begins even at the time of the bet.

8. (countable) Pure, unfermented grape juice.

9. A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy.

   Synonym: press-gang
10. (obsolete) A crowd.

    • And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.

11. This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
12. (psychology) In personology, any environmental factor that arouses a need in the individual.
    • 2009, Allison E. Smith, Ageing in Urban Neighbourhoods (page 88)

      The environmental comfort category is illustrative of cases in which there are low environmental presses matched against a number of personal competences.

Synonyms

• (storage space): See closet, cupboard, pantry

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Middle English pressen (“to crowd, thring, press”), from Old French presser (“to press”) (Modern French presser) from Latin press?re, from pressus, past participle of premere "to press". Displaced native Middle English thringen (“to press, crowd, throng”) (from Old English þringan (“to press, crowd”)), Middle English thrasten (“to press, force, urge”) (from Old English þr?stan (“to press, force”)), Old English þryscan (“to press”), Old English þ?wan (“to press, impress”).

Verb

press (third-person singular simple present presses, present participle pressing, simple past and past participle pressed or prest)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To exert weight or force against, to act upon with force or weight; to exert pressure upon.
2. (transitive, mechanics, electronics) To activate a button or key by exerting a downward or forward force on it, and then releasing it.

   Synonyms: strike, hit, depress

3. (transitive) To compress, squeeze.

   Synonyms: thring, thrutch; see also Thesaurus:compress

4. (transitive) To clasp, hold in an embrace.

   Synonym: hug
5. (transitive) To reduce to a particular shape or form by pressure, especially flatten or smooth.

6. (transitive, sewing) To flatten a selected area of fabric using an iron with an up-and-down, not sliding, motion, so as to avoid disturbing adjacent areas.
7. (transitive) To drive or thrust by pressure, to force in a certain direction.

   Synonyms: thring, thrutch

8. (transitive, obsolete) To weigh upon, oppress, trouble.
9. (transitive) To force to a certain end or result; to urge strongly.

   Synonym: impel
10. To try to force (something upon someone).

    Synonyms: urge, inculcate
11. (transitive) To hasten, urge onward.

12. (transitive) To urge, beseech, entreat.
13. (transitive) To lay stress upon.

    Synonym: emphasize
14. (transitive, intransitive) To throng, crowd.

    Synonyms: thring, thrutch; see also Thesaurus:assemble

15. (transitive, obsolete) To print.
16. To force into service, particularly into naval service.

    Synonym: press-gang

Derived terms

• press charges
• press on

Translations

See also

• hot press (baking, laundry)
• hot off the press (printing)
• press down

References

• Entry for the imperfect and past participle in Webster's dictionary
• press in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• “press”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000

Anagrams

• ERSPs, RESPs, SERPs, Spers

German

Verb

press

1. singular imperative of pressen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of pressen

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From the verb presse

Noun

press n (definite singular presset, indefinite plural press, definite plural pressa or pressene)

1. pressure
2. (weightlifting) a press

Related terms

• trykk

Etymology 2

Verb

press

1. imperative of presse

References

• “press” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “press_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb presse

Noun

press n (definite singular presset, indefinite plural press, definite plural pressa)

1. pressure
2. (weightlifting) a press

Related terms

• trykk

References

• “press” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Noun

press m (plural press)

1. press (exercise)

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

press c

1. a press; a tool that applies pressure (to make things flat, to make juice)
2. a (printing) press

   stoppa pressarna

   stop the presses

3. the press (newspapers, journalism as a branch of society)
4. (mental) pressure
5. a muscle exercise that applies pressure

Declension

Related terms

• apelsinpress
• bänkpress
• benpress
• blompress
• brevpress
• pressa
• pressbyrå
• pressfrihet
• pressning
• tryckpress