Definition of: rend

(rend) v. rent or rend·ed, rend·ing v.t.
1. To tear apart forcibly; split; break.
2. To pull or remove forcibly: with away, from, off, etc.
3. To pass through (the air) violently and noisily.
4. To distress (the heart, etc.), as with grief or despair.
—v.i.
5. To split; part. [OE rendan tear, cut down]
—rend′er noun Synonyms: break, burst, cleave, lacerate, mangle, rip, rive, rupture, sever, slit, sunder, tear. Rend and tear are applied usually to the sundering of textile substances, tear being the milder, rend the stronger word. To rip, as applied to articles made by sewing or stitching, is to divide along the line of a seam by cutting or breaking the stitches. Rive is a woodworkers' word for parting wood in the way of the grain without a clean cut, as by splitting. To lacerate is to tear roughly the flesh or animal tissue, as by the teeth of a wild beast. Mangle is a stronger word than lacerate; lacerate is more superficial, mangle more complete. To burst or rupture is to tear or rend by force from within, burst denoting the greater violence; as, to burst a gun; to rupture a blood vessel. Compare BREAK. Antonyms: heal, join, mend, reunite, secure, stitch, unite, weld.