Now rare. [f. TEAR sb.1]
1. intr. To shed tears, to weep. Obs. or dial.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John xi. 35. Tæherende [Rushw. teherende] uæs se hælend.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, II. li. (1869), 95. I bigan to tere and to weepe and to sigh.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 9. Its mother … Who absent blear’d and tear’d as much for him.
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), II. 60. Eneas himself … too often teared for the losse of Troye.
1719. Hamilton, in Christ. Instructor (1832), 694. Some of them were so affected that they teared also.
1806. Cock, Simple Strains (1810), I. 103 (E.D.D.). I fell in wi’ Geordy Brown, And he, poor saul, was tearin’.
† b. trans. To pass (time) in weeping. Obs.
1575. Gascoigne, Fruite of Fetters, iii. I teare my time (ay me) in prison pent.
c. Of the eyes: To shed or emit tears.
c. 1000, 1527. [see tearing ppl. a. below].
1650. in Ritchie, Ch. St. Baldred (1880), 86. Putting sneishen in his eyes to mak them tear.
1879. [see tearing vbl. sb. below].
2. trans. To fill or sprinkle with or as with tears.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 112. Feare teares your eyes.
1889. J. W. Riley, The All-kind Mother, in Century Mag., XXXVII. Feb., 545.
| Loveless weed and lily fair | |
| She attendeth, here and there— | |
| Kindly to the weed as to | |
| The lorn lily teared with dew. |
Hence Tearing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 72. Wið tyrende eaʓan, ʓenim þa ylcan wyrte betonican.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, C iv b. The same is good put in the iyen agaynst tering iyen.
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), II. 135. The tearinge and fatherlie intercession of the saide religious persons.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 778. A white spot formed on the cornea, along with much ‘tearing’ and ‘fear of light.’
