tear down

See also: teardown and tear-down

English

tear down (third-person singular simple present tears down, present participle tearing down, simple past tore down, past participle torn down)

(transitive) To demolish.
They're going to tear down the old shack when they redevelop the land.
- 1987 June 12, Ronald Reagan, Berlin Wall Speech‎^[1]:
  General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
- 2022 November 30, Nick Brodrick, “Pride and innovation shine at St Pancras”, in RAIL, number 971, page 69:
  It's a world away from the dank and uninviting St Pancras that British Rail wanted to tear down in the 1960s.
(transitive) To open and disassemble (a device or machine) to inspect, showcase, or refurbish its components.
Top Fuel dragsters are sort of like fighter planes in the respect that the frequency with which their engines have to be torn down and rebuilt would be insanely unaffordable in any other context.
(transitive, figurative) To degrade (someone): to discredit or criticize.
If all you can offer is to tear down the efforts of all but the most precociously talented students, then maybe you're not cut out to be a primary school art teacher.