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Tear vs Gear - What's the difference?

tear | gear |

As verbs the difference between tear and gear

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 gear is to provide with gearing; to fit with gears in order to achieve a desired gear ratio.

As nouns the difference between tear and gear

is that tear is a hole or break caused by tearing while gear is equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor.

As an adjective gear is

(mostly British (Scouse)) great or fantastic.

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.

    gear

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia gear)
  • (uncountable) equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor.
  • Clothing; garments.
  • * Spenser
  • Array thyself in thy most gorgeous gear .
  • (obsolete) Goods; property; household items.
  • (Chaucer)
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
  • Homely gear and common ware.
  • (countable) a wheel with grooves (teeth) engraved on the outer circumference, such that two such devices can interlock and convey motion from one to the other.
  • (countable) a particular combination or choice of interlocking gears, such that a particular gear ratio is achieved.
  • (countable) A configuration of the transmission of a motor car so as to achieve a particular ratio of engine to axle torque
  • (slang) recreational drugs
  • * 2003 , Marianne Hancock, Looking for Oliver (page 90)
  • Have you got any gear ? Dominic, have you got any acid?
  • (uncountable, archaic) stuff.
  • * 1662 , , Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 113:
  • "When he was digged up, which was in the presence of the Magistracy of the Town, his body was found entire, not at all putrid, no ill smell about him, saving the mustiness of the grave-Clothes, his joynts limber and flexible, as in those that are alive, his skin only flaccid, but a more fresh grown in the room of it, the wound of his throat gaping, but no gear nor corruption in it; there was also observed a Magical mark in the great toe of his right foot, viz. an Excrescency in the form of a Rose."
  • (obsolete) Business matters; affairs; concern.
  • * Spenser
  • Thus go they both together to their gear .
  • (obsolete, UK, dialect) Anything worthless; nonsense; rubbish.
  • (Wright)
  • * Latimer
  • That servant of his that confessed and uttered this gear was an honest man.

    Synonyms

    * cog, cogwheel, gearwheel

    Derived terms

    * change gear * change gears * high gear * gear lever * gear shift * gear up * shift gear * shift gears * up a gear

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (engineering) To provide with gearing; to fit with gears in order to achieve a desired gear ratio.
  • (engineering) To be in, or come into, gear.
  • to dress; to put gear on; to harness.
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (mostly British (Scouse) ) great or fantastic
  • Anagrams

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