ppl. a. [pa. pple. of TEAR v.1, q.v. for Forms.] Rent or riven by being pulled violently asunder; wearing tom 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, -out, -up; also torn-down, rough, riotous, boisterous, disorderly (dial. and U.S.); reduced in circumstances (Sc. and dial.). Also sb., a rough riotous person.
1870. W. M. Baker, New Timothy, xxxii. 344. Yes, a real torn-down piece I was!
1877–88. in N. W. Linc. Gloss.
1886. in S. W. Linc. Gloss.
