different between tear vs slash

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) IPA^(key): /sla?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /slæ?/
• Hyphenation: slash
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

Originally a verb of uncertain etymology. Possibly from French esclachier (“to break”). Used once in the Wycliffe Bible as slascht but otherwise unattested until 16th century. Conjunctive use from various applications of the punctuation mark ?/?. See also slash fiction.

Noun

slash (plural slashes)

1. A slashing action or motion, particularly:
   1. A swift, broad, cutting stroke made by an edged weapon or whip.

   2. (cricket) A wild swinging strike of the bat.
   3. (ice hockey, lacrosse) A hard swift lateral strike with a hockey or lacrosse stick, usually across another player's arms or legs.
   4. Any similar wide striking motion.

   5. (figuratively) A sharp reduction.

2. A mark made by a slashing motion, particularly:
   1. A cut or laceration, often deep, made by an edged weapon or whip.

   2. (botany) A deep taper-pointed incision in a plant.
3. Something resembling such a mark, particularly:
   1. (fashion) A slit in an outer garment exposing a lining or inner garment, usually of a contrasting color or design; any intentional long vertical cut in a garment.
   2. (US and Canada) A clearing in a forest, (particularly) those made by logging, fire, or other violent action.
      • 1895, Henry Van Dyke, Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness

        We passed over the shoulder of a ridge and around the edge of a fire slash, and then we had the mountain fairly before us.

   3. (originally US, typography) The slash mark: the punctuation mark ?/?, sometimes (often proscribed) inclusive of any mark produced by a similar slashing movement of the pen, as the backslash ?\?.
      • 1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation, page 240:

        Initial inquiries among professional typists uncover names like slant, slant line, slash, and slash mark. Examination of typing instruction manuals discloses additional names such as diagonal and diagonal mark, and other sources provide the designation oblique.

   4. (vulgar, slang) Female genitalia.
4. (US and Canada) The loose woody debris remaining from a slash, (particularly forestry) the trimmings left while preparing felled trees for removal.

5. (fandom slang) Slash fiction.
   • 2013, Katherine Arcement, "Diary", London Review of Books, vol. 35, no. 5:

     Comments merely allow readers to proclaim themselves mortally offended by the content of a story, despite having been warned in large block letters of INCEST or SLASH (any kind of sex between two men or two women: the term originated with the Kirk/Spock pairing – it described the literal slash between their names).

Synonyms

• (deep cut): gash
• (typographic mark): slash mark; solidus (formal name); stroke (chiefly UK); forward slash, forward stroke, foreslash, frontslash, front slash (sometimes proscribed); virgule (marking line breaks); shilling mark (UK, historical currency sign); slants, slant lines (marking pronunciations); separatrix (proofreading mark); scratch comma (former use as a form of comma); oblique, oblique mark, oblique stroke, oblique dash (chiefly UK, dated); diagonal, diagonal mark (dated); virgula (obsolete); virgil (UK, obsolete); whack (improper); bar (improper, obsolete)
• (vulgar term for female genitalia): See cunt

Antonyms

• backslash

Hypernyms

• (typographic mark): fraction bar (in fractions); division sign (in division)

Hyponyms

• division slash
• fraction slash

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

Punctuation

Verb

slash (third-person singular simple present slashes, present participle slashing, simple past and past participle slashed)

1. To cut or attempt to cut, particularly:
   1. To cut with a swift broad stroke of an edged weapon.

   2. To produce a similar wound with a savage strike of a whip.
   3. (ice hockey) To strike swiftly and laterally with a hockey stick, usually across another player's arms or legs.
   4. (figuratively) To reduce sharply.

   5. (fashion) To create slashes in a garment.
   6. (figuratively) To criticize cuttingly.
2. To strike violently and randomly, particularly:
   1. (cricket) To swing wildly at the ball.
3. To move quickly and violently.
4. To crack a whip with a slashing motion.
5. (US, Canada) To clear land, (particularly forestry) with violent action such as logging or brushfires or (agriculture, uncommon) through grazing.

6. (intransitive, fandom slang) To write slash fiction.

Synonyms

• (to strike with a whip): lash, scourge, thrash
• (to strike a whip): crack

Derived terms

Coordinate terms

• (slash fiction): ship

Translations

Adverb

slash (not comparable)

1. Used to note the sound or action of a slash.

Conjunction

slash

1. (US and Canada) Used to connect two or more identities in a list.
   • 2001, Fabio Lanzoni, Zoolander:

     What this, the Slashie, means is that you consider me the best actor slash model and not the other way around.

2. (US and Canada) Used to list alternatives.

   Alternatives can be marked by the slash/stroke/solidus punctuation mark, a tall, right-slanting oblique line.

   Read: Alternatives can be marked by the slash-slash-stroke-slash-solidus punctuation mark, a tall, right-slanting oblique line.

Usage notes

Typically written with the slash mark ?/? and only spoken or transcribed as slash. Often omitted from speech and only marked as a brief pause between the alternatives. Exclusively omitted in common constructions such as and/or, either/or, and washer/dryer.

Synonyms

• (exclusive or): or
• (inclusive or): and, or, and/or
• (UK): stroke

Further reading

• slash on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Of uncertain etymology. Compare Scots slash (“large splash”), possibly from Old French esclache. Slang use for urination attested from the 1950s.

Noun

slash (plural slashes)

1. (obsolete, rare) A drink of something; a draft.
2. (vulgar, Britain, slang) A piss: an act of urination.

   Where's the gents? I need to take a slash.

Verb

slash (third-person singular simple present slashes, present participle slashing, simple past and past participle slashed)

1. (Britain, slang, intransitive) To piss, to urinate.
   • 1973, Martin Amis, The Rachel Papers, page 189:

     If you can slash in my bed (I thought) don't tell me you can't suck my cock.

Translations

Etymology 3

Of uncertain etymology. Compare flash (“a marsh; a pool of water”) and British dialectal slashy (“wet and dirty, miry”).

Noun

slash (plural slashes)

1. (US) A swampy area; a swamp.
2. (Scotland) A large quantity of watery food such as broth.

Verb

slash (third-person singular simple present slashes, present participle slashing, simple past and past participle slashed)

1. (Scotland, intransitive) To work in wet conditions.

Etymology 4

See slatch

Noun

slash (plural slashes)

1. (Britain) Alternative form of slatch: a deep trough of finely-fractured culm or a circular or elliptical pocket of coal.

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "slash, v.¹ & v.²" & "slash, n.¹, n.², n.³, & n.?". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1911.

Anagrams

• LSSAH

Spanish

Noun

slash m (plural slash)

1. (punctuation) slash