TEAR UP

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tear up mean? 

• TEAR UP (verb)
  The verb TEAR UP has 1 sense:

1. tear into shreds

  Familiarity information: TEAR UP used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TEAR UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tear into shreds

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

rip up; shred; tear up

Hypernyms (to "tear up" is one way to...):

bust; rupture; snap; tear (separate or cause to separate abruptly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tear up"):

tease (tear into pieces)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

I am afraid to stop, or I should tear up the letter, and I don't want to stop, for I do so want to tell you all.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

All, save I, were at rest or in enjoyment; I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me, and finding myself unsympathised with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“It is a lucky thing,” said he, “that they did not tear up the tree on which I was sitting, or I should have had to sprint on to another like a squirrel; but we tailors are nimble.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)