tore
Pulled or ripped something apart with force in the past.
Tore is the past tense of the verb tear (which rhymes with “bear”). It means to rip or pull something apart with force. When you tore a piece of paper, you pulled it into pieces. When strong winds tore the roof off a house, they ripped it away violently.
The word captures forceful, often sudden separation. A runner who tore a muscle ripped the tissue inside their body. A sad character in a story might have torn up an old letter, ripping it into tiny pieces. Someone who was in a huge hurry might have torn through their homework, working so fast they barely paid attention.
You can also tear something down, like when a city tore down an old building to make room for a new one. The word works for fabric, paper, muscles, buildings, or anything that gets ripped or pulled apart with strength or speed. Notice that tore describes something that already happened: “Yesterday I tore my jacket on a fence.”