different between tear vs wrest

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

• enPR: r?st, IPA^(key): /??st/
• Rhymes: -?st
• Homophone: rest

Etymology 1

From Middle English wresten, wrasten, wræsten, from Old English wr?stan (“to twist forcibly, wrench”), from Proto-Germanic *wraistijan?, (compare Proto-Germanic *wr?han? (“to turn, wind; to cover, envelop”), *wr?þan? (“to weave, twist”), Old Norse reista (“to bend, twist”)), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wrei?-, *wrey?- (“to bend, twist”), *wreyt- (“to bend”). See also writhe, wry.

The noun is derived from the verb.

Verb

wrest (third-person singular simple present wrests, present participle wresting, simple past and past participle wrested)

1. (transitive) To pull or twist violently.
2. (transitive) To obtain by pulling or violent force.
3. (transitive, figuratively) To seize.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To distort, to pervert, to twist.
5. (transitive, music) To tune with a wrest, or key.

Derived terms

• outwrest
• overwrest
• wrester

Related terms

• wrestle

Translations

Noun

wrest (plural wrests)

1. The act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion.
2. (music) A key to tune a stringed instrument.
3. (obsolete) Active or motive power.
4. (obsolete, rare) Short for saw wrest (“a hand tool for setting the teeth of a saw, determining the width of the kerf”); a saw set.

Derived terms

• saw wrest
• wrest block
• wrest pin
• wrest plank

Etymology 2

Possibly a variant of wrist: see the quotation. Wrist is also derived from *wr?þan? (“to weave, twist”), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wrei?-, *wrey?- (“to bend, twist”), *wreyt- (“to bend”).

Noun

wrest (plural wrests)

1. A partition in a water wheel by which the form of the buckets is determined.

Etymology 3

A misspelling of rest, probably influenced by wrest (etymology 1, verb and noun).

Noun

wrest (plural wrests)

1. (agriculture, dated, dialectal) A metal (formerly wooden) piece of some ploughs attached under the mouldboard (the curved blade that turns over the furrow) for clearing out the furrow; the mouldboard itself.

Derived terms

• turnwrest

References

Anagrams

• Trews, strew, trews, werst

Middle English

Noun

wrest

1. Alternative form of wrist