rend one's garments
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From the biblical and Jewish practice of keriah, the tearing of clothes when in mourning.
Verb[edit]
rend one's garments (third-person singular simple present rends one's garments, present participle rending one's garments, simple past and past participle rent one's garments or rended one's garments)
- (idiomatic) To fret or moan in an excessive or theatrical manner.
- 1938 February 12, J. Will Taylor, “Address at Knocksville, Tenn.”, in Congressional Record: Appendix of the Third Session of the Seventy-Fifth Congress of the United States of America, volume 83, part 9, page 663:
- Yes, my friends, it is amusing to see these new dealers wring their hands and rend their garments on account of the distress of the great army of underprivileged in our country.
- 1984, James J. Kilpatrick, The Writer’s Art[1], →ISBN:
- Rosenblatt never sawed the air or rent his garments. When he began his essay, he knew how he meant to end it.
- 2010 June 12, Mike Carlton, “Funny, they remember their epithets but not their manners”, in The Sydney Morning Herald[2]:
- I feel much the same as I watch the mining magnates wringing their hands, rending their garments and uttering up their piteous cries about the horrors of the resources super profits tax.
- 2015 December 17, Devin Friedman, “J. R. Smith Is Always Open”, in GQ[3]:
- Remember, after “The Decision,” when the people of Cleveland took to the streets, lost their ever-loving minds, rended their garments, cried into their pierogies, and burned their LeBron jerseys? And everyone was like LeBron will never be welcomed back here!
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rend, garment.
Translations[edit]
to rend one’s garments; (figuratively) to fret or moan in an excessive or theatrical manner
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