rend

English

Etymology

From Middle English renden, from Old English rendan (“to rend, tear, cut, lacerate, cut down”), from Proto-West Germanic *(h)randijan (“to tear”), of uncertain origin. Believed by some to be the causative of Proto-Germanic *hrindaną (“to push”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱret-, *kret- (“to hit, beat”), which would make it related to Old English hrindan (“to thrust, push”). Cognate with Scots rent (“to rend, tear”), Old Frisian renda (“to tear”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɛnd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Verb

rend (third-person singular simple present rends, present participle rending, simple past and past participle rent or rended)

1. (transitive) To separate into parts with force or sudden violence; to split; to burst

   Powder rends a rock in blasting.

   Lightning rends an oak.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak / And peg thee in his knotty entrails till / Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.

   • 1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock: Bantam Books, page 317:

     We are most vulnerable now to the messages of the new subcults, to the claims and counterclaims that rend the air.

2. (transitive) To part or tear off forcibly; to take away by force; to amputate.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Job 2:12:

     And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 51, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 260:

     For a time, there reigned, too, a sense of peculiar dread at this flitting apparition, as if it were treacherously beckoning us on and on, in order that the monster might turn round upon us, and rend us at last in the remotest and most savage seas.

3. (intransitive) To be rent or torn; to become parted; to separate; to split.

   Relationships may rend if tempers flare.

Derived terms

• berend
• rap and rend
• torend
• rend one's garments

Translations

Noun

rend (plural rends)

1. A violent separation of parts.
   • 2002, John S. Anderson, A Daughter of Light, page xvi:

     She'd been in a couple of minor car accidents herself, and witnessed a few others, and the rend of metal was unforgettable.

Anagrams

• NERD, dern, nerd

Albanian

Etymology 1

An early loanword from a South Slavic language, from Proto-Slavic *rędъ (“row, line”) with a preserved nasal. Compare Old Church Slavonic рѧдъ (rędŭ, “line, order”), Serbo-Croatian red (“row”), Bulgarian ред (red, “row”), and West Slavic descendant Polish rząd (“row”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɾɛnd/

Noun

rend m (plural rende, definite rendi, definite plural rendet)

1. row, order, line
2. turn
3. class, category

Declension

Synonyms

• radhë
• rresht

Derived terms

• rendit
• renditje
• rendoj

Etymology 2

From Proto-Albanian *renta, from *rena, akin to Gothic 𐍂𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (rinnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to run”).

Verb

rend (aorist renda, participle rendur)

1. to run (after), hurry (after)

   Synonym: gjëmoj

References

Danish

Verb

rend

1. imperative of rende

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɑ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

rend

1. third-person singular present indicative of rendre

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from a Slavic language. Ultimately from Proto-Slavic *rędъ. Compare Serbo-Croatian rȇd.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: rend
• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Noun

rend (countable and uncountable, plural rendek)

1. order (the state of being well-arranged)
2. order (conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet)
3. order (a group of religious adherents, especially monks or nuns, set apart within their religion by adherence to a particular rule or set of principles)

   Synonym: szerzetesrend

4. order (an association of knights)

   Synonym: lovagrend

5. (biology, taxonomy) order (a category in the classification of organisms, ranking below class and above family; a taxon at that rank)

   Coordinate terms: törzs, osztály, család, nemzetség, faj

6. (historical) estate (a major social class or order of persons regarded collectively as part of the body politic of the country and formerly possessing distinct political rights (Estates of the realm))

Declension

Derived terms

References

Further reading

• rend in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN