tear asunder
Rip completely apart
To tear asunder is to rip apart violently or completely—a more dramatic and literary way of saying to tear apart.
The phrase appears in wedding vows (let no man tear asunder) and descriptions of catastrophic separation: The explosion tore the ship asunder.
Asunder is rarely used outside this phrase in modern English.
- ripTear apart forcibly
- rip apartForcibly tear to pieces
- splitSeparation into parts
- cleaveSplit or adhere
- heartbreakCrushing emotional pain
split apart · shred · dismember · estrangement · warfare · schism · civil war · rive · chaos · dichotomy · alienation · disintegration · come undone · rupture · break apart · rend · sever · pull apart
tear asunderjoin together
Merge with another
unite · fuse · mend · repair · put together
tear asunderbring together
Cause to meet
unite · reconcile · connect · wed · make whole
tear, asunder, tears, torn, tearing, tearer, sunder, sundered, sundering