Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to tear one’s clothes into rags.

1866		Western Dly Press 9 Mar. 3: Robert Lowe was [...] charged with tearing up his clothes [...] after using violent language [...] and threw his ‘skillery’ into the face of the master [of the workhouse].
1882		Dundee Courier 18 Aug. 7/4: I had made up my mind to ‘tear up’ at the first likely workhouse, as the only way of getting out of the scrape I had got into.
1883		Manchester Courier 24 Mar. 9/7: I’ve been on the tramp nigh on thirteen years and only been ‘jugged’ twice, once for tearing up.
1892		Sussex Agricultural Exp. 6 Dec. 4/3: Thomas Riogers and Henry Smith, vagrants, were charged with tearing up their clothes whilst inmates of the Dorking Workhouse.

2. (US black, also tear it up, tear up shit) to enjoy oneself, to do something with relish or well.

1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 10: ‘I got a pass tonight,’ said Fuselli. [...] ‘Goin’ to tear things up?’ [Ibid.] 29: Ah was drunk at the time. Us boys round Tallyville was a pretty tough bunch then. We used ter work juss long enough to git some money to tear things up with. An’ then we used to play craps an’ drink whiskey.
1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 250: The nitewatchman came rapping at the door to find out what the hell they were tearing up about.
1945		Botkin Lay My Burden Down 68: The Yankee stole out and tore up a scandalous heap.
1955		Shapiro & Hentoff Hear Me Talking to Ya 204: He had the first big colored band that hit the road and tore it up.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 57: He tore himself up laughing.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 40: tear it up – To come on strong and make the happening percolate.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 108: Expressions for a ‘hot’ performer, to wail, to tear up, to stride.
1988		Too $hort ‘Cusswords’ 🎵 I’m tearin shit up like never before / Pimp slaps, makin snaps.
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 51: We’re tearin’ it up tonight!
1993		(con. 1975) K. Scott Monster (1994) 8: You wanna hang with real muthafuckas and tear shit up, huh?
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 tear it up Definition: do good at something. Example: Damn nigga! You tore it up out there on the courts slammin over 4 niggas.
2000		Hip-Hop Connection Jan. 69: Peter Parker tears shit up as the other players take their places.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 53: Hilarious comics came out and tore [the comedy club] up.
2015		‘Elvis Costello’ Unfaithful Music 477: Each night, we’d take an interlude at the piano where A[llen] T[oussaint] would tear up ‘Big Chief’.

3. (Aus. und.) to rob.

1919

V.J. Marshall World of Living Dead (1969) 129: [E]ven the household barber or dwelling dancer (the transient lodger who ‘tears up’ the whole abode) [...] never hesitate to express their contempt for the more roughly inclined of the profession.

4. to criticize, to attack verbally.

1902		H. Hapgood Spirit of the Ghetto 276: He literally ‘tore him up the back’ as far as literature is concerned—pointed out the tasteless, cheap, sensational character of his work, and held him up generally to ridicule.
1945		G. Fairlie Capt. Bulldog Drummond 109: Something inside me made me tear up Irma properly in really most ungallant terms.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 194: She said to keep them for her and they’re probably the only set she’s got and she’d tear me up if I threw them away.

5. to make a great impression (on).

1946		K. Williams Diaries 25 Dec. 8: Splendid party in Green Room at Nee Soon. Send-up of 7 Keys to Baldpate called 7 Stops to Aldgate, tore the place up!
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 285: This guy can really tear up a piece of ass.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 51: I’m gonna tear up that street.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 137: They said was I sure I could follow Janis Joplin after she had just finished tearing up the place.
1999		Indep. Rev. 5 Nov. 15: He just tears people up.
2014		A. Fox-Lerner ‘Traces of a Name’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] Currently tearing up the city. Big rough throw-ups with a punchy style.

6. to destroy, to overcome, lit. and fig., occas. to beat up.

1950		N.Y. Post 28 Dec. n.p.: The three, all 17, were arrested Christmas for tearing up the premises of the Alps Bar and Grill.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 54: Remember how the joint was torn up when you guys got there.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 210: But Owsley, the little wiseacre, is tearing him up.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 9: He was gon tear up the place if he didn’t get the shit.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 11: Shee-it, I’ll tear ’im up.
1984		(con. 1964–73) W. Terry Bloods (1985) 37: We’d [...] have a ball. Go into town and tear the town up.
1993		A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 160: We used t’ tear up the fucken city, bro’!
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 288: None of the people he really tore up — I mean the ones who weren’t dead — ever wanted to show up in court.
2021		A. Parks April Dead 102: ‘You expect me to give a fuck?’ said Cooper. ‘Can’t say I’m all torn up about it [i.e. a murder], but I didn’t do it’.

7. (US black) to have sexual intercourse.

1952		H.H. Griffin the Devil rides outside 318: ‘She's a good looker for her age. I could tear up her—’.
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 135: ‘I feel like tearing up something tonight.’ ‘Lawd, you sure tore up the last mama you had.’.
1980		J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 159: They want to believe that he is tearing up much black pussy.
1982		Cold Crush Bros ‘Live at the Dixie’ 🎵 I was tearing shit up and ’bout a quarter to three / She said ‘Caz, somebody’s coming.’ I said, ‘Yeah, me.’.
2005		Jade LB Keisha the Sket (2021) 31: ‘So we gnna tear up dwn here ye sexc’ [...] ‘Ye man, most definitely, she sed’.

8. (US) to distress, to upset; often in ironic use.

1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 127: He was tore up.
1961		M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 37: That’s sad, Agnes. That really tears me up.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 48: That stuff always tore me up.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 55: It tore him up to look at her, at what they’d done.

9. (US gang) to cry [ext. of sense 5].

1965

S. Yurick Warriors (1966) 130: Didn’t he learn that to tear-up is to get laughed at, even by your own mother.