tear (one) limb from limb

(redirected from tear them limb from limb)

tear (one) limb from limb

To violently maim a person or animal. Typically used as a threat, rather than a description of an actual action. If I find out that you're the one who hurt my daughter, I will tear you limb from limb, understand?

tear (someone or some animal) limb from limb

to rip someone or an animal to bits. The explosion tore the workers limb from limb. The crocodiles attacked the wading zebras and tore them limb from limb.

tear someone limb from limb

If someone threatens to tear you limb from limb, they say they will kill you in a very violent way. It was lucky for him the police found him before I did because I would have torn him limb from limb.

tear someone limb from limb

violently dismember someone.

tear somebody ˌlimb from ˈlimb

(often humorous) attack somebody very violently: Julian looked so angry that I thought he was going to tear his brother limb from limb.

See also: limb, somebody, tear

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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References in classic literature ?

The Sentinel groaned aloud: a beautiful Greyhound who appeared to be one of the Ladies in Waiting--fainted away: and all the other Courtiers hastily drew back, and left plenty of room for the huge Newfoundland to spring upon the audacious strangers, and tear them limb from limb.

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Some threw themselves upon the captives as they got towards the door, and tried to file away their irons; some danced about them with a frenzied joy, and rent their clothes, and were ready, as it seemed, to tear them limb from limb. Now a party of a dozen men came darting through the yard into which the murderer cast fearful glances from his darkened window; dragging a prisoner along the ground whose dress they had nearly torn from his body in their mad eagerness to set him free, and who was bleeding and senseless in their hands.

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This matters because if you put him up against the seriously grey, established party nodding donkeys (bland and boring Drakeford, minority issues Price, etc.), he's going to tear them limb from limb, regardless of the validity of the arguments from either side.

Inside the slick Brexit Party rally with Nigel Farage and panto-style chanting; WEBCHAT

Though grieving relatives outside the courtrooms might have wished to tear them limb from limb and though many decent people would have sympathized with their white fury, the power of justice was that these men, obvious though their guilt may have been, were given the benefit of due process in a court of law.

Editorial: A defining moment in Syrian savagery

They all follow a similar formula: make the characters suffer and then tear them limb from limb, preferably with the camera capturing every horrific second in bloodspattered slow motion.

Divorced from reality

Before long the surrounding area is swarming with more vicious dogs, which seem determined to tear them limb from limb. The Breed is a mangy horror-thriller with a woeful screenplay, created by genetically splicing Lassie and Dog Soldiers.

culture: films; DVD reviews

We'd gladly give up ourselves to take the place of the helpless children." Lyda Drachova, 66, raged: "If I could get my hands on these rebels, I'd tear them limb from limb. They're all damned beasts."

RUSSIA SCHOOL SIEGE TERROR: THE LUCKY ONES; Joy as rebels free 31 but fears grow for victims left behind