▪ I. torn, ppl. a.
(tɔːn)
[pa. pple. of tear v.1, q.v. for Forms.]
a. Rent or riven by being pulled violently asunder; wearing torn garments.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 111 In A toren Tabart of twelue Wynter Age. c 1425 Cast. Persev. 109 in Macro Plays 80 Þer schal com a lythyr ladde with a torne hod. 1552 Huloet, Torne garmentes, lacides. a 1631 Donne Hymn to Christ 1 In what torne shipp soever I embark. 1693 Dryden Juvenal i. 159 Tho born a Slave, tho my torn Ears are bor'd. ? a 1750 Nursery Rime, ‘House that Jack Built’ viii, This is the man all tattered and torn, That kissed the maiden all forlorn. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxxiii, A rent and torn ravine resembling a deserted watercourse. 1839 Darwin Voy. Nat. x. (1873) 210 Masses of rock and torn-up trees. 1860 Reade Cloister & H. lxxi, The poor torn, worn creature wept. 1861 J. Barr Poems 119 (E.D.D.) Like some torn⁓doun play actor, That had sung for his bread thro' a fair. |
b. spec. Bot.: see quots.; also in comb.
| [1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. (1776) 384 Lacerum, lacerate, where the Margin is variously divided, as if torn.] 1888 Cassell's Encycl. Dict., Torn,..Bot., irregularly divided by deep incisions. 1895 Funk's Standard Dict., Torn-crenate, Bot., crenate by a torn margin. |
c. In combination with adverbs, as torn-off, torn-out, torn-up; also torn-down: (a) that has been rent or pulled down; (b) fig. rough, riotous, boisterous, disorderly (dial. and U.S.); reduced in circumstances (Sc. and dial.); also n., a rough riotous person.
| 1870 W. M. Baker New Timothy xxxii. (U.S.). 1877–88 in N.W. Linc. Gloss. 1886 in S.W. Linc. Gloss. 1933 S. Spender Poems 40 Through torn-down portions of old fabric. 1953 K. Reisz Technique Film Editing i. 35 Other fragments of the torn-down statue of the Czar reassembling. |
▪ II. torn
obs. f. tourn (sheriff's court), turn.