rend
verbEtymology
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”).
Definitions
To separate into parts with force or sudden violence
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.
To violently disturb the peace of
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.
To part or tear off forcibly
To part or tear off forcibly; to take away by force; to amputate.
- 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.
›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer
To be rent or torn
To be rent or torn; to become parted; to separate; to split.
- Relationships may rend if tempers flare.
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.
The neighborhood
Derived
berend, rap and rend, render, rendible, rend one's garments, rendrock, torend, uprend
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for rend. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA