How to Use tear up in a Sentence

tear up

verb
  • The holes are not on the greens, so they will not be torn up.
    By Bill Van Smith, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024
  • That tears up landscapes and tends to piss off a lot of people in the process.
    Justine Calma, The Verge, 2 Mar. 2023
  • Mortified, Angela tears up the note and throws it in the trash.
    Clare Sestanovich, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023
  • My brain felt as if it were being ripped apart, torn up.
    Chloé Cooper Jones Emily Woo Zeller Krish Seenivasan Zachary Mouton, New York Times, 19 Apr. 2024
  • In Rogers, no one was sure who had the authority to tear up the tracks.
    Randy McCrory Vintage Bentonville, arkansasonline.com, 1 Feb. 2024
  • And while this wheel might tear up the road, that’s exactly what it’s not made for.
    Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 5 Nov. 2021
  • And yet, who doesn't still tear up a little when the townsfolk arrive to save the day?
    Aimée Lutkin, ELLE, 30 Nov. 2022
  • Big rocks tear up mowing equipment and the whirling blades throw the smaller rocks.
    Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, 2 Sep. 2024
  • The swimmer has been tearing up the record books over the last few years and is a gold medal favorite in four events.
    NBC News, 29 July 2024
  • Women were three times more likely to tear up due to burnout than men.
    Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune Europe, 2 Aug. 2024
  • The question caused Henson to pause, cover her eyes with one of her hands and tear up.
    Chris Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2023
  • The strong winds downed trees and power lines and tore up outbuildings.
    Elizabeth Walsh, Idaho Statesman, 3 July 2024
  • Martin thinks about the bond of friendship among the volunteers and tears up.
    Sophie Carson, Journal Sentinel, 7 Mar. 2024
  • His mother, Bev Vance, stood for the applause and appeared to tear up and hold a tissue to her eyes.
    Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 18 July 2024
  • Magic Johnson is tearing up about his new place in the NFL.
    Michael Lee Simpson, Peoplemag, 21 July 2023
  • But before anyone can tear up, the coffin lid opens and up pops David Byrne.
    Geoff Edgers, Washington Post, 13 Sep. 2022
  • Otero came home early to check on the house, finding the object had ripped through his ceiling and torn up the flooring.
    CBS News, 16 Apr. 2024
  • The three of them stemmed his wounds by tearing up his jeans and using them as a tourniquet, his sister said.
    Gabby Sobelman, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2023
  • The boost of extra noise comes from construction equipment tearing up earth on the south side of I-20.
    Dave Lieber, Dallas News, 10 Aug. 2023
  • What to Consider It’s made for sipping hot toddies by the fire, not tearing up the slopes.
    Lydia Price, Travel + Leisure, 31 Oct. 2023
  • Strip off the stems, tear up the leaves, and sprinkle them with some of the orange dressing, then massage with your hands to tenderize the leaves.
    Sally Pasley Vargas, BostonGlobe.com, 24 Jan. 2023
  • Anyone in the audience who can hear that without tearing up has got more steel in them than the Man of Steel.
    Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 23 Jan. 2024
  • The next balloon pop revealed a TV with a video message from Gabby, which made Tran tear up, too.
    Hannah Kirby, Journal Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2024
  • Highways are torn up and power lines strewn like spaghetti.
    Laura Paddison, CNN, 2 Oct. 2024
  • One woman tears up at the death of a dog who kept her safe in an abusive relationship.
    Sonia Rao, Washington Post, 27 Jan. 2024
  • British forces cut down multi-acre stands of trees and tore up farm buildings for lumber to build their barracks.
    Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024
  • That’s when Bundchen began to lose it, tearing up and looking away from the camera, raising her hand to halt the chat.
    Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald, 7 Mar. 2024
  • Jonah Cox, the outfielder acquired from the A’s for Ross Stripling, has also torn up the base paths for a league-leading nine steals in 14 games.
    Evan Webeck, The Mercury News, 26 Apr. 2024
  • Inside, a layer of dark green carpet had been torn up and replaced with white-and-gray flooring.
    Lauren Lumpkin, Washington Post, 28 Aug. 2023
  • After showing me some of the last text messages Grant ever sent him, James still tears up talking about his late friend.
    Jon Youshaei, Forbes, 18 Oct. 2024

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

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