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
  • But the man himself, Arne Slot, hasn’t torn up the trusty playbook.
    — Henry Flynn, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2024
  • 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
  • Big rocks tear up mowing equipment and the whirling blades throw the smaller rocks.
    — Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, 2 Sep. 2024
  • Stick to the Calabrian side and risk tearing up their ship on a rocky shoal.
    — Matt Robison, Newsweek, 20 Nov. 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
  • Below, a very large chunk of the EAA is being torn up by backhoes and dump trucks.
    — Bill Kearney, Sun Sentinel, 25 Nov. 2024
  • The trucks that brought in feed for the hogs or loaded them up for trips to the slaughterhouse tore up the town’s narrow roads.
    — Kenny Torrella, Vox, 7 Feb. 2025
  • The strong winds downed trees and power lines and tore up outbuildings.
    — Elizabeth Walsh, Idaho Statesman, 3 July 2024
  • My breath catches, my eyes tear up, my hands fidget, and my heart races.
    — Erin Qualey, Vulture, 7 Feb. 2025
  • That’s why the first ceremony of the 2025 awards season tore up its script.
    — Stephen Humphries, The Christian Science Monitor, 18 Feb. 2025
  • Galipeau said Allen washed his face in the toilet, went to the bathroom in his cell, tore up mail and ate paper.
    — Jeremy Edwards, ABC News, 30 Oct. 2024
  • 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
  • In Farmington, youths on e-bikes have torn up sections of lawn at Union School.
    — Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 12 June 2025
  • 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
  • Then whatever power is tearing up the floor hits that person and then flings them against the wall.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 7 Mar. 2025
  • Highways are torn up and power lines strewn like spaghetti.
    — Laura Paddison, CNN, 2 Oct. 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
  • Brown then took out a ring from his pocket as his girlfriend Danielle Bryant began to tear up and covered her mouth in shock.
    — Gabrielle Rockson, People.com, 19 Dec. 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
  • So if this becomes a use tax based on the miles to drive, there should be different rates because our little cars don’t tear up the roads like the trucks.
    — Laura Johnston, cleveland, 20 Jan. 2023
  • Lamp posts don’t need much new technology — they’re already wired for high voltage, so communities don’t need to tear up streets or parking lots to install new charging stations.
    — Jesse Wright, Chicago Tribune, 13 June 2025

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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