rend

verb

1. (transitive)To separate into parts with force or sudden violence; to split; to burst.

   “Powder rends a rock in blasting.”

   “Lightning rends an oak.”

   “If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak / And peg thee in his knotty entrails till / Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.”

2. (figuratively, transitive)To violently disturb the peace of; to throw into chaos.

   “a scream that rent the air”

   “We are most vulnerable now to the messages of the new subcults, to the claims and counterclaims that rend the air.”

3. (transitive)To part or tear off forcibly; to take away by force; to amputate.

   “And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.”

   “For a time, there reigned, too, a sense of peculiar dread at this flitting apparition, as if it were treacherously beckoning us on and on, in order that the monster might turn round upon us, and rend us at last in the remotest and most savage seas.”

4. (intransitive)To be rent or torn; to become parted; to separate; to split.

   “Relationships may rend if tempers flare.”

noun

1. A violent separation of parts.

   “She'd been in a couple of minor car accidents herself, and witnessed a few others, and the rend of metal was unforgettable.”