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Tear vs Chink - What's the difference?

tear | chink | Related terms |

Tear is a related term of chink.


As nouns the difference between tear and chink

is that tear is a hole or break caused by tearing or tear can be a drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation while chink is (slang|offensive|ethnic slur) refers to a chinese or a person of chinese ethnicity.

As a verb tear

is to rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate or tear can be to produce tears.

tear

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Verb

  • To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
  • * 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
  • He suffered, poor man, at seeing her so badly dressed, with laceless boots, and the arm-holes of her pinafore torn down to the hips; for the charwoman took no care of her.
  • To injure as if by pulling apart.
  • To cause to lose some kind of unity or coherence.
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.}}
  • To make (an opening) with force or energy.
  • To remove by tearing.
  • To demolish
  • To become torn, especially accidentally.
  • To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
  • To smash or enter something with great force.
  • Synonyms
    * (break) rend, rip * (remove by tearing) rip out, tear off, tear out

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A hole or break caused by tearing.
  • A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.
    Derived terms
    * wear and tear

    Derived terms

    * tearsheet

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia tear) (en noun)
  • A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
  • Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
  • * Dryden
  • Let Araby extol her happy coast, / Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears .
  • That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
  • * Milton
  • some melodious tear
    Derived terms
    {{der3 , crocodile tears , shed a tear , teardrop , tear duct , tearful , tear up , teary , two tears in a bucket }}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To produce tears.
  • Her eyes began to tear in the harsh wind.

    chink

    English

    Etymology 1

    Of uncertain origin; but apparently an extension (with formative (m)) of (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A narrow opening such as a fissure or crack.
  • *1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • *:Yet I did not give way, but settled to wait for the dawn, which must, I knew, be now at hand; for then I thought enough light would come through the chinks of the tomb above to show me how to set to work.
  • * Macaulay
  • Through one cloudless chink , in a black, stormy sky, / Shines out the dewy morning star.
  • A chip or dent (in something metallic).
  • A vulnerability or flaw in a protection system or in any otherwise formidable system, idiomatically derived from the phrase "chink in armor".
  • * The warrior saw a chink in her enemy's armor, and aimed her spear accordingly.
  • * The chink in the theory is that the invaders have superior muskets.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=January 30 , author=Kevin Darlng , title=Arsenal 2 - 1 Huddersfield , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The first chink in Arsenal's relaxed afternoon occurred when key midfielder Samir Nasri pulled up with a hamstring injury and was replaced. }}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fill an opening such as the space between logs in a log house with chinking; to caulk.
  • to chink a wall
  • To crack; to open.
  • To cause to open in cracks or fissures.
  • Etymology 2

    Onomatopoeic.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A slight sound as of metal objects touching each other.
  • Ready money, especially in the form of coins.
  • *1834 , David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of , Nebraska 1987, pp. 47-8:
  • *:I thought that if all the hills about there were pure chink , and all belonged to me, I would give them if I could just talk to her when I wanted to
  • * Somerville
  • to leave his chink to better hands

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a slight sound like that of metal objects touching.
  • The coins were chinking in his pocket.
  • To cause to make a sharp metallic sound, as coins, small pieces of metal, etc., by bringing them into collision with each other.
  • (Alexander Pope)

    Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)