Tear vs Dew - What's the difference?
tear | dew |
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
To injure as if by pulling apart.
To cause to lose some kind of unity or coherence.
*
, title= 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.
A hole or break caused by tearing.
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 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
That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
* Milton
(uncountable) moisture in the air that settles on plants, etc in the morning, resulting in drops.
(countable, but see usage notes) an instance of a such moisture settling on plants, etc.
(uncountable) Any moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces.
(figurative) Anything that falls lightly and in a refreshing manner.
* Shakespeare
An emblem of morning, or fresh vigour.
* Longfellow
To wet with, or as if with, dew; to moisten.
* A. B. Saxton
As verbs the difference between tear and dew
is that 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 while dew is to wet with, or as if with, dew; to moisten.As nouns the difference between tear and dew
is that tear is a hole or break caused by tearing while dew is moisture in the air that settles on plants, etc in the morning, resulting in drops.As an acronym DEW is
distant Early Warning.tear
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .Verb
- 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.
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.}}
Synonyms
* (break) rend, rip * (remove by tearing) rip out, tear off, tear outNoun
(en noun)- A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.
Derived terms
* wear and tearDerived terms
* tearsheetEtymology 2
From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) .Noun
(wikipedia tear) (en noun)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”. […]’.}}
- Let Araby extol her happy coast, / Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears .
- some melodious tear
Derived terms
{{der3 , crocodile tears , shed a tear , teardrop , tear duct , tearful , tear up , teary , two tears in a bucket }}dew
English
(wikipedia dew)Noun
- There was a heavy dew this morning.
- The golden dew of sleep.
- The dew of his youth.
Usage notes
* Although the countable sense is still used, the plural form is now archaic or poetic only.Synonyms
* (moisture settling on plants) (obsolete)Verb
(en verb)- The grasses grew / A little ranker since they dewed them so.