Definition of "rend" []

• To tear or split apart or into pieces violently. See Synonyms at tear1. (verb-transitive)
• To tear (one's garments or hair) in anguish or rage. (verb-transitive)
• To tear away forcibly; wrest. (verb-transitive)
• To pull, split, or divide as if by tearing: "Chip was rent between the impulse to laugh wildly and a bitterness that threatened hot tears” ( Louis Auchincloss). (verb-transitive)
• To pierce or disturb with sound: a scream rent the silence. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But let us not believe that the bad old days are so far behind us that racially driven violence could not once again rend our social fabric."
• "In this passage, Oothoon's rhetoric of purity and defilement reveals her unwitting capitulation to Theotormon's ascetic dualism (which opposes chastity to harlotry), while her use of the verb "rend" in her instruction to Theotormon's eagles implies, most appallingly, an invited repetition of Bromion's act of rape."
• "I wanted to beat back at him, smash flesh and bone'tear" rend" Perhaps the physical weakness left from our long ride was our salvation at that moment."