1 (rip) [+fabric, paper] romper; rasgar you've torn your trousers te has roto or rasgado el pantalón; Jane tore my dress Jane me rompió or rasgó el vestido
he tore his trousers on some briars she nearly tore my dress why did you tear my poster?
to tear a hole in sth hacer un agujero en algo he tore a hole in his jacket while he was climbing over the fence to tear sth [open]
she tore open the envelope abrió el sobre rápidamente
to tear sth to pieces or bits [+letter, photograph] hacer pedazos algo; destrozar algo; [+animal] descuartizar algo; [+argument, essay, idea] echar algo por tierra the antelope was torn to pieces by the lions los leones descuartizaron el antílope; to tear sb to pieces or bits descuartizar a algn; poner a algn por los suelos
No, I'm certain Andreyev wouldn't go for that option. /His colleagues would tear him to pieces/ she tore his argument to pieces bits shreds he tore the letters into small pieces he started screaming and tore the chart to shreds he'll tear your ideas to shreds the reason that a candidate won't come out and say they are going to raise taxes is because they know the other party is going to tear them to shreds to tear one's hair a lack of initiative at local factories has him tearing his hair I wanted to tear him limb from limb
that's torn it! ¡ya la hemos fastidiado! (informal); ¡buena la hemos hecho! (informal) "Look out! Here comes Mr Smith!" That's torn it, Roger thought
2 (injure) [+muscle] desgarrarse; [+ligament] romperse it's easy to tear a ligament be careful you don't tear a ligament
he tore a muscle in his thigh se desgarró un músculo del muslo; torn ligaments rotura (f) de ligamentos
I've been injured on court. /I have torn ligaments/ /a torn ligament/ kept him out of Saturday's game The most common cause of back pain is torn ligaments he fell over and tore the skin from his knees canine teeth are for piercing and killing prey and tearing flesh
3 (pull, remove) he tore the shelf away from the wall with his bare hands arrancó el estante de la pared con sus propias manos they used their bare hands to tear away hundreds of tons of rock to reach the men buried beneath it
to tear o.s. free or loose soltarse Lauren tore herself free of Reggie's restraining grip John's tore himself loose, then got down on his knees
to tear sth from/off sth arrancar algo de algo he tore a page from or out of his notebook arrancó una hoja del bloc de notas; she tried to tear the book from my hands intentó arrancarme el libro de las manos; the wind tore the roof off a building el viento arrancó (de cuajo) el tejado de un edificio
he was torn from his seat she tore a page from the back of a writing pad heavy winds tore branches off the trees Mary Ann tore the edge off her napkin
to tear sb off a strip (Britain) poner a algn de vuelta y media (informal) Nora was tearing a strip off the maid for not cleaning the kitchen properly There is no point in ringing David up and tearing him off a strip when the police arrived to tear him off a strip he apologised for all the trouble he'd caused them she tore him off a strip for arriving late
4 having to make a decision like that can tear you in two tomar una decisión así puede ser una experiencia desgarradora
to [be] torn by sth
he was torn by his emotions estaba desgarrado por las emociones; a country torn by war un país desgarrado por la guerra; she is torn between her job and her family se debate entre su trabajo y su familia; she was torn between the two men in her life no se decidía entre los dos hombres que formaban parte de su vida
he would be torn in two if he had to make the decision you might feel torn between pursuing a career opportunity and supporting a partner I'm very much torn to be torn between two things/people she was torn between her pride and her desire to see him again
