take apart

verb

took apart; taken apart; taking apart; takes apart

: to disconnect the pieces of (something) : disassemble

take a machine apart

While the giant engines at the Waterworks were being taken apart piece by piece and examined for damage, temporary sources of power were sought.—

Jim Murphy

informal : to treat (someone or something) roughly or harshly : to tear into

The voice in his head that normally took him apart was cutting him some slack. Every now and then, it actually gave him some credit.—

David Corbett

Examples of take apart in a Sentence

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Trump’s statecraft is a response to a changing world and to demand signals from the U.S. electorate, not a capricious effort to take apart the world that the United States made. —

Charles Kupchan, Foreign Affairs, 9 Sep. 2024 Time took apart the mountains, and rain dissolved most of the minerals in them, but the quartz remained. —

Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2024 The demand for mechanics who can take apart the battery pack and repair a dead cell has vastly outstripped supply. —

Bradley Brownell / Jalopnik, Quartz, 1 May 2024 Instead of being able to remove and replace individual switches, any modification would involve taking apart the entire keyboard. —

Henri Robbins, WIRED, 7 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for take apart