rent

adj

Etymology: See rend.

1. That has been torn or rent; ripped; torn.

   “Indeed, we could clearly make out the arch and stony banks of this second cave, and, from their rent and jagged appearance, discovered that, like the first long passage down which we had passed through the cliff before we reached the quivering spur, it had to all appearance been torn in the bowels of the rock by the terrific force of some explosive gas.”

   “Cleopatra is rent by a struggle between her newly-acquired dignity as a queen, and a strong impulse to put out her tongue at him.”

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: See rend.

1. A tear or rip in some surface.

   “[O]ne streak of copper-coloured light made a narrow rent between sea and sky.”

   “The brown paint on the door was so old that the naked wood showed between the rents.”

2. A division or schism.

   “[T]he White House was considering sending Vice President Humphrey to Cairo to patch up the many rents in U.S.—Egyptian relations.”

verb

Etymology: See rend.

1. simple past and past participle of rend