tear off v.2
1. (US) to perform an action or activity.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Tales of the Ex-Tanks 388: I [...] tore off a couple of 5x8 views of the group. | |
| Guilelmensian (Williams Coll.) 289: One of the Fellows asked him if he Played the Piano. He Smiled, so they asked him to Tear off a few Yards. | |
| Minneapolis Jrnl (MN) 29 Mar. 11/3: The manager of the show gets up on a wine barrel [...] and tears off about seven rods of spiel. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Coshocton (OH) Daily Times 4 June 2/3: We’ve got the goods on any old bard / We can tear off Shakespeare by the yard. | |
| ‘Harmony’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 183: I [...] went back to my seat to tear off my seven hundred words before we reached Springfield. | |
 | Speeches of Fuller Durham 11 July [synd. col.] He put his heart in every speech he tore off. | |
| Inimitable Jeeves 114: Bingo was certainly tearing off some ripe stuff. | |
| ‘The Squeal Widow’ in Gun Molls Oct. 🌐 How about tearing off that Brooklyn job tonight. | |
| Reading (PA) Eagle 20 Mar. 7/3: The fraternity brother who goes home for the week-end is going to ‘tear off a little romance’ - presumably with the girl back home. | |
| Sexus (1969) 364: I got in bed again and tore off a quick one. | |
| letter in Charters (1993) 203: We quickly tear-off several goodies. | |
| Veeck — as in Wreck 52: Charlie would give himself a lift by going up into the stands and tearing off a couple of solo numbers [i.e. on the banjo]. | |
| Florida Roadkill 150: They tore off two more mondo lines. |
2. (US Und.) to steal.
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 352: I ust tuh tear off a t’ousand sometimes. | |
| ‘From a Gentleman Inside’ 30 Sept. [synd. col.] For this guy tore off half a State [...] / He robbed his friends and neighbors. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 155: Soon as I tear off some money you line us up a couple of freaky foxes. |
In phrases
(Aus.) to succeed, to accomplish something.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Digger Dialects 49: tear off a lump — Accomplish. | |
| (con. WWI) Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: tear off a lump. To accomplish. |
of a man, to have sexual intercourse.
| Actionable Offenses ‘Dennis Reilly at Maggie Murphy’s Home After Nine O’Clock’ (2007) [cylinder recording ENHS 30192] ‘Now stop, Denny, take your hand off that, what do you want to do?’ ‘I don’t know yet what I’m goin’ to do, I think I’m goin’ to tear off a little piece of you’ [Laughs]. | |
| Anecdota Americana I 112: They repaired to their bed and Perkins tore off a vigorous piece. | |
| joke cited in Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1972) I 315: Her and Elbert tore off another chunk, and then he went back to the carpenter shop. | |
| Brain Guy (1937) 257: Wanta tear off a piece? | |
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 76: Tear off a piece, to coit with a woman. | |
| in Derelicts of Company K (1978) 337: They got passes to go into town to tear off a piece of ass. And we had to stand guard. | |
| (con. 1910s) Pedlocks (1971) 207: You come down have some wine. Maybe one of my nieces, she pleases you, Zaftig, like you say. Very fine girls. Convent girls. Very good girls, no loose tramps like you pick ’em up in the saloons and geta the clap [...] Look you come down and tear off a piece anytime. And the wine – Asti Spumante – she is ona me. | |
| Jimmy Brockett 281: I liked tearing off a bit with her but there was more to it than that. | |
| M*A*S*H (2004) 127: You talk to the broad [...] and you say, ‘Honey, let’s go somewhere and tear off a piece.’. | |
| San Diego Sailor 47: Bob and I had gotten over each other a long time ago, but there were still times when [...] we’d tear off a piece. | |
| Female Eunuch 265: The vocabulary of impersonal sex is peculiarly desolating. Who wants to ‘tear off a piece of ass?’. | |
| in Law Unto Themselves 196: You stop on your beat at coffee-break and ‘tear off’ a piece of tail for yourself. |
(orig. RAF/milit.) to criticize severely, to reprimand.
| Bulletins from Britain 11 Dec. 3: to tear off a strip. To give someone a bawling out. | |
| Down in the Holler 292: If Nell’s pappy knowed what she’s a-doin’, he’d tear off a strip! | |
| (trans.) Big Show 126: He [...] consequently tore me off a hell of a strip. | |
| Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 153: I really tear the strips off this routine. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | A Pocketful of Years 156: The storm broke day after those men marched off with Sam and Lizzie arriving to tear strips off me for not selling out. | |
| Snake 40: Don’t think I didn’t tear him off a bloody strip! I did. | |
| Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 118: It gave me a marvellous opportunity to do my nut and tear a strip off the inoffensive old desk sergeant. | |
| Sloane Ranger Hbk 158: Sloanes have lots of words for anger and its consequence, some of them doggy. ‘Saw red.’ ‘Tore him off a strip’ [etc.]. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Woman Who Walked Into Doors 191: He’d have been a leader [...] Standing up and speaking in the Dáil, tearing strips off the Minister for Social Welfare. | |
| Guardian Guide 14–20 Aug. 81: The judge tears Ally off a strip for blowing her nose! | |
| Big Ask 19: Now he was tearing strips off his advisers. | |
| Urban Grimshaw 28: He was the only man alive who could tear me off a strip with impunity. | |
| Locked Ward (2013) 224: ‘Got over that bollocking Geraldine gave you?’ ‘Wow! [...] she was angry all right. Tore strips off me’. |