rend

A violent separation of parts.

Noun

  1. A violent separation of parts.
    • She'd been in a couple of minor car accidents herself, and witnessed a few others, and the rend of metal was unforgettable. - 2002, John S. Anderson, A Daughter of Light, page xvi:

Origin

From Middle English renden, from Old English rendan (“to rend, tear, cut, lacerate, cut down”), from Proto-West Germanic *(h)randijan (“to tear”), of uncertain origin. Believed by some to be the causative of Proto-Germanic *hrindaną (“to push”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱret-, *kret- (“to hit, beat”), which would make it related to Old English hrindan (“to thrust, push”). Cognate with Scots rent (“to rend, tear”), Old Frisian renda (“to tear”).

Forms

rends

Verb

  1. To separate into parts with force or sudden violence; to split; to burst.
    • Powder rends a rock in blasting.
    • Lightning rends an oak.
    • If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak / And peg thee in his knotty entrails till / Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. - 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...
  2. To violently disturb the peace of; to throw into chaos.
    • a scream that rent the air
    • We are most vulnerable now to the messages of the new subcults, to the claims and counterclaims that rend the air. - 1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock: Bantam Books, page 317:
  3. To part or tear off forcibly; to take away by force; to amputate.
    • A time to rent, and a time to sow: a time to keepe silence, and a time to speake. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiastes 3:7:
    • And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […]...
    • For a time, there reigned, too, a sense of peculiar dread at this flitting apparition, as if it were treacherously beckoning us on and on, in order that the monster might turn round upon us, and rend us at last in the...
  4. To be rent or torn; to become parted; to separate; to split.
    • Relationships may rend if tempers flare.

    Synonyms: rive

Forms

rends rending rent rended

Derived

berend rap and rend render rendible rend one's garments rendrock torend uprend