How to Use rip up in a Sentence

rip up

phrasal verb
  • Sinead O’Connor had just ripped up a photo of the Pope.
    Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 30 Oct. 2023
  • By the time the 1990s came round, nylons were a thing of the past—seen only on first ladies, or ripped up on the legs of Courtney Love.
    Laia Garcia-Furtado, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2023
  • The enormous tree’s root ball ripped up chunks of brick and concrete sidewalk.
    Drew Kann, ajc, 15 Sep. 2023
  • Matos, once the Giants’ No. 4 overall prospect, is ripping up the Cactus League.
    Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 15 Mar. 2024
  • The dog can be seen ripping up the bottom of the trampoline before stopping to stare at the camera.
    Paloma Chavez, Miami Herald, 13 June 2024
  • Storms can damage the flats where fishers and crabbers make their living, ripping up the grass where fish hide, feed and spawn.
    Rebecca Blackwell and James Pollard, BostonGlobe.com, 3 Sep. 2023
  • But, after a few days, the nurses in Ward 3-A are amazed that Tyoma has stopped ripping up and chewing pieces of the windowsill.
    Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023
  • Eradicating TikTok, like the killing off of Vine, rips up a piece of the social fabric.
    Angela Watercutter, WIRED, 15 Mar. 2024
  • One of the first of many commands my wife gave me after we got married was to rip up all the nandinas in front of my house.
    Steve Bender, Southern Living, 19 Oct. 2023
  • One of the first of many commands my wife gave me after we got married was to rip up all the nandinas in front of my house.
    Steve Bender, Southern Living, 11 Sep. 2024
  • People rip up their lawns and replace them with bricks and cobblestones.
    Charles McGrath, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2023
  • That could entail ripping up part of your lawn, even just 10 percent, or putting a few plants out on your city balcony.
    Benji Jones, Vox, 18 Sep. 2024
  • The rush barely tapers as the automatic rips up through its gears.
    Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 14 May 2023
  • This means construction crews need to rip up and repave roads so new buildings can get access to things such as sewers.
    Nick Rosenberger, Idaho Statesman, 22 Apr. 2024
  • Some in the state are ripping up mustard plants and turning them into paper, dyes, pesto and, of course, mustard, the condiment.
    Eric Risberg and Janie Har, Quartz, 7 Mar. 2024
  • His cycling jersey could be seen ripped up and his bike helmet was severely damaged in the front.
    Kimberlee Speakman, Peoplemag, 15 June 2024
  • Ford is ripping up its current user interface and coming up with a new one, with ease of use top of mind.
    Russ Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Erna, who is eighty and long retired from her job as a waitress in a corporate cafeteria, ripped up the letter and threw it in the trash.
    Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2024
  • Different parts of the carpet were ripped up and the refrigerator was gone.
    Angel Saunders, Peoplemag, 28 Oct. 2023
  • Different parts of the carpet were ripped up, and the refrigerator was gone.
    Melissa Noel, Essence, 3 Nov. 2023
  • So there are a few key considerations CEOs should weigh up before ripping up the rule book, Davis says.
    Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune Europe, 9 Dec. 2023
  • One of the men is wearing blue jeans with rips up and down the leg, while the other appears to be wearing darker colored jeans while sporting a shoulder bag, or purse.
    Greg Wehner, Fox News, 10 Oct. 2023
  • If players could freely rip up their contracts, all that spending would become worthless.
    Steve Price, Forbes, 6 Oct. 2024
  • The Russian military secured the capital, soldiers deployed on the streets, and heavy equipment ripped up roads leading to the city.
    CBS News, 25 June 2023
  • Every floorboard in the East Wing has been ripped up to enable the upgrade to take place, and elevators have been added to make the palace more accessible.
    Simon Perry, Peoplemag, 9 July 2024
  • No lockdown drills, no tornado ripping up the building’s roof like one did in middle school, no firearms found on campus.
    Susannah Felts, Longreads, 27 Apr. 2023
  • For that to happen, everything is getting ripped up so that a modern drainage system can be installed.
    Joseph Goodman | Jgoodman@al.com, al, 11 Aug. 2023
  • At the Stonewall National Monument — the site of the 1969 uprising considered to be the turning point of the modern gay rights movement — Pride flags were ripped up and thrown to the ground twice this month, and for the second year in a row.
    Matt Lavietes, NBC News, 29 June 2024
  • Around a decade ago, a conservation nonprofit worked out a deal to buy the 2,100-acre tract from the farmer, rip up the fields, and restore the ancient vegetation that once existed there.
    Jake Bittle, WIRED, 6 Jan. 2024
  • Existing roads would need to be ripped up and rebuilt with the transmitter coils and other necessary equipment.
    The Indianapolis Star, 25 Apr. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rip up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: