ˈrend verb
( rent -nt ; also rended ; rent also rended ; rending ; rends )
Etymology: Middle English renden, from Old English rendan; akin to Old Frisian renda to tear, rend, Sanskrit randhra split, opening, hole
transitive verb
1. : to pull violently from a person or thing : remove from place by violence : tear out or away : wrench , wrest
glaciers may … rend boulders from their beds — G.W.Tyrrell
rend manhood out of him in fear — G.D.Brown
2.
a. : to split or tear apart or in pieces by violence : cleave
saw lightning rend a tree
: dismember
many a carcass they left … for the horny-nibbed raven to rend — Alfred Tennyson
b. : to convert straight-grained wood into (laths) by splitting
3. : to tear (the hair or clothing) as a sign of anger, grief, or despair
foam, fling myself flat, rend my clothes to shreds — Robert Browning
4. : to affect as if tearing or splitting: as
a. : to lacerate (as the heart) with painful feelings
look in his face … and rend him with her scorn — Ellen Glasgow
b. : to pierce with sound
suddenly this dead stillness was rent by a shot — Zane Grey
c. : to divide (as a nation) into parties : disintegrate
a long dispute over where it should be built rent the community — American Guide Series: Virginia
intransitive verb
1. : to perform an act of tearing or splitting
a time to rend and a time to sew — Eccles 3:7 (Revised Standard Version)
2. : to become torn or split
made of rotten black cloth … or else it would not have rent — Edmund Hickeringill
Synonyms: see tear