TEAR DOWN

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tear down mean? 

• TEAR DOWN (verb)
  The verb TEAR DOWN has 1 sense:

1. tear down so as to make flat with the ground

  Familiarity information: TEAR DOWN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TEAR DOWN (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tear down so as to make flat with the ground

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

dismantle; level; pull down; rase; raze; take down; tear down

Context example:

The building was levelled

Hypernyms (to "tear down" is one way to...):

destroy; destruct (do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tear down"):

bulldoze (flatten with or as if with a bulldozer)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Do you need to pull out the plumbing to redo things or tear down a wall or put one up?

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I looked desperately round for some rock or tree, but I was in a bushy jungle with nothing higher than a sapling within sight, while I knew that the creature behind me could tear down an ordinary tree as though it were a reed.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)