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Tear vs Stir - What's the difference?

tear | stir | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between tear and stir

is that tear is to make (an opening) with force or energy while stir is to incite to action; to arouse; to instigate; to prompt; to excite.

In intransitive terms the difference between tear and stir

is that tear is to produce tears while stir is to become the object of notice; to be on foot.

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.

    stir

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) stiren, from (etyl) styrian, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (stirr)
  • To change the place of in any manner; to move.
  • *(rfdate), (Sir William Temple)
  • *:My foot I had never yet in five days been able to stir .
  • (lb) To disturb the relative position of the particles of, as of a liquid, by passing something through it; to agitate.
  • :
  • *(rfdate), (William Shakespeare)
  • *:My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirred .
  • (lb) To agitate the content of (a container) by passing something through it.
  • :
  • (lb) To bring into debate; to agitate; to moot.
  • *(rfdate), (Francis Bacon)
  • *:Stir not questions of jurisdiction.
  • (lb) To incite to action; to arouse; to instigate; to prompt; to excite.
  • *(rfdate) (Chaucer)
  • *:To stir men to devotion.
  • *(rfdate), (William Shakespeare)
  • *:An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife.
  • *(rfdate), (John Dryden)
  • *:And for her sake some mutiny will stir .
  • *1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
  • *:That night he was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in his little sawdust heart that it almost burst.
  • (lb) To move; to change one’s position.
  • *(rfdate) (Byron)
  • *:I had not power to stir or strive, But felt that I was still alive.
  • (lb) To be in motion; to be active or bustling; to exert or busy oneself.
  • *(rfdate) (Byron)
  • *:All are not fit with them to stir and toil.
  • *(rfdate) (Charles Merivale)
  • *:The friends of the unfortunate exile, far from resenting his unjust suspicions, were stirring anxiously in his behalf.
  • (lb) To become the object of notice; to be on foot.
  • *(rfdate), (Isaac Watts)
  • *:They fancy they have a right to talk freely upon everything that stirs or appears.
  • To rise, or be up and about, in the morning.
  • *
  • *:"Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins," remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir ; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: "Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir! "
  • Usage notes
    * In all transitive senses except the first, (term) is often followed by (up) with an intensive effect; as, (term); (term).
    Synonyms
    * (to move) incite; awaken; rouse; animate; stimulate; excite; provoke.
    Derived terms
    * stir-fry * stirrer * stir up * straw that stirs the drink

    Noun

  • The act or result of stirring; agitation; tumult; bustle; noise or various movements.
  • * (rfdate), .
  • Why all these words, this clamor, and this stir ?
  • * (rfdate), .
  • ''Consider, after so much stir about genus and species, how few words we have yet settled definitions of.
  • Public disturbance or commotion; tumultuous disorder; seditious uproar.
  • * (rfdate), .
  • Being advertised of some stirs raised by his unnatural sons in England.
  • Agitation of thoughts; conflicting passions.
  • Etymology 2

    (en)

    Noun

    (-)
  • (lb) Jail; prison.
  • :
  • *
  • *:The Bat—they called him the Bat.. He'd never been in stir , the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face. Most lone wolves had a moll at any rate—women were their ruin—but if the Bat had a moll, not even the grapevine telegraph could locate her.
  • Anagrams

    * * English ergative verbs ----