tear up

verb

tore up; torn up; tearing up; tears up

transitive verb

1

: to damage, remove, or effect an opening in

tore up the street to lay a new water main

2

: to perform or compete with great success on, in, or against

couples tearing up the dance floor

a batter who's tearing up the league

Examples of tear up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But that one [in the finale], playing my guitar and singing that song, and seeing the cast tear up, too. — Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 2 Oct. 2026

Seeing these two girl dads tear up about walking their babies down the aisle, the passage of time, and the inviolate personhood of their daughters was tender and precious. — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2026

This is just one of many parts of the course that were absolutely torn up, including an area just off the 1st green where a couple of thousand runners turned areas into mud pits. — Joe Kinsey Outkick, FOXNews.com, 20 Sep. 2026

Dewan tore up the ballroom with a fiery tango with her pro, three-time winner Val Chmerkovskiy. — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 17 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1620, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for tear up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup