tear, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

tear n.

[SE tear, to go at full tilt]

1. (US campus) a perfect recitation.

1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 455: a perfect tear is a very extra recitation, superior to a rowl.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 66: tear, n. A brilliant success.

2. (orig. US, also tare) a spree, a jollification; an alcoholic binge.

1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 24: It is Thursday night, and a grand ‘tear’ is to be held in that large and rather aristocratic looking cellar across the way.
1854		N.Y. Clipper 7 Jan. 3/4: Here come some of the boys on a ‘bit of a tare,’ as they call it. ‘Say, Jim, damned pretty gal up at tho widow’s!’ .
1867		G.W. Harris Sut Lovingood’s Yarns 125: Sumtimes the boys gits ontu a ‘tare’ ove nites.
1876		‘Dan de Quille’ Big Bonanza (1947) 279: We’ll have a regular tear – the big blow-out of the season!
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 56: What’s up? Dat Johnson party on anudder tear?
1901		Truth (Sydney) 20 Jan. 5/7: Have you ever seen a wineshop / Mister Norton, on a tear?
1902		Ben Sun ‘Cocky’s Handy Man’ in Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 165: [He] is a demon on the ‘tear.’.
1909		W. Irwin Confessions of a Con Man 43: The president of an Eastern flour company came right into town on a tear.
1922		B. Hecht A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] Old Norske Tobias is on a tear again, his red face shining.
1938		Reading (PA) Eagle 20 Mar. 7/3: If you go out for a little fun you’re ’out on a tear’.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 557: It’s more fun being out with the gang from the office on a tear.
1977		(con. 1930s) S. McAughtry Sinking of the Kenbane Head 28: But of course, with his weakness, the money did him more harm than good in the long run, for it only put him on the tear for days.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 169: It sent him on a tear that lasted six weeks.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 172: The police had been out on the tear on Saturday and were sleeping it off.
2008		T. Dorsey Atomic Lobster 3: Spring break on a tear, man; the Florida State fair, man . . .

3. a state of excitement.

1999		S. Grafton O is for Outlaw (2000) 391: The very notion had put Mark on a tear, thinking we had evidence of their association.
2005		K. Huff A Steady Rain I i: When Denny’s off on a tear like that, I just can’t talk to the guy.

In phrases

go (out) on a/the tear (v.) (also go out on the rip)

1. (orig. US) to go out on a spree or binge.

1876		St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: The party are supposed to be ‘off on a tear,’ and should one of them, at this stage of the game, ‘get it up his nose,’ he is asked by his beloved associate if he has ‘got ’em,’ and is requested to ‘heave her up, old man’.
1883		Central New Jersey Home News (New Brunswick, NJ) 22 Sept. 4/2: ‘Drunk as a scrambled owl; ever see an Oberlin student on a tare?’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 6/4: For years he acted up to a rigid rule, which limited his daily expenditure to 4s. 6d., and so that he should not be tempted to revel in extravagancies, he never took more than that sum when going on a tear round in the city.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Jan. 15/2: [T]he blessed business got so much on Devon’s mind that he went on a ‘tear.’.
1906		E. Dyson In Roaring Fifties 167: Fact is, the dad goes on a tear now ’n again, an’ we pen him up to sober him off.
1909		Armidale Chron. (NSW) 25 Dec. 1/5: If a tussle for championship honors they’d try, / One man from Moree could drink all of them dry. / When the whole of its citizens get on the ‘tear,’ / It’s worth all the rest of your life to be there.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 389: Her and couple of other skirts bought a whole case of whisky and went on a tear.
1927		P. O’Donnell Islanders (1933) 141: It’s because Neil is goin’ that yer Aunt Mary is goin’, for she knows fine he’ll go on the tare. An’ Mary Manus is goin’ to keep Manus off the batter.
1933		Derby Dly Teleg. 26 May 14/2: He [...] went off on ‘a tear that was a lallapaloosa.’ It lasted a couple of days.
1939		W. Winchell On Broadway 20 Oct. [synd. col.] A chorus man went on a tear and sent two of the girls to a hospital.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 130: Collie hadn’t gone off on a mad tear. It hadn’t been anything that had happened at the Elbow Room to push him over the edge.
2001		M. Keyes Under the Duvet 99: Mother Nature must have had an off day — been out on the rip the night before, maybe.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] But if he’s just out there on a tear we got a shot, because he’s got to cop.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 28: [D]ays spent on the tear trying to drink away all sorts,.

2. to become (over-)excited.

2013

E. Beetner ‘Going in Style’ in ThugLit Feb. [ebook] About once every two months, Herb went on a tear about this and that [...] The beds sucked—true. The food sucked—true.

hit up a tear (v.)

(Aus.) to get drunk.

1908

Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Nov. 11/1: Haven’t you in your time / Seen some wild soul advance, / Noisy, hilarious, / Palpably ‘in a trance’/ And likewise ‘paralyt- / Ic,’ ‘potty,’ ‘on his ear,’ / ‘Full,’ ‘sozzled,’ ‘bosky,’ ‘tanked,’ / ‘Boozed,’ ‘hitting up a tear’?