Timeline for Is ‘on (in) a tear’ a popular idiom?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
|
|
| Jun 20, 2013 at 15:19 | comment | added | user24964 | I'm familiar with "on a tear" meaning on a winning streak or run of great success. I wouldn't say it was that unusual. (Native Brit, and for me tear rhymes exactly with air) | |
| Jun 13, 2013 at 19:32 | vote | accept | Yoichi Oishi | ||
| Jun 13, 2013 at 18:46 | comment | added | J.R. | @jwpat: There are the tears we get from chopping onions (rhymes with ears) and the tears we get in our notebook paper (rhymes with airs). As you know, there are two ways to pronounce tear; when Irene asked her question, I assumed she was asking which of those two pronunciations were used in the expression on a tear. I was only trying to disambiguate in a straightforward way; I wasn't trying to write a precise pronunciation guide. Regional accents may vary. :^) | |
| Jun 13, 2013 at 16:10 | comment | added | James Waldby - jwpat7 | @J.R., I agree it doesn't rhyme with ear but air isn't quite flat enough. More like tare. Wiktionary shows air and tare both rhyming with -ɛə(r) but I suggest diphthong -eə(r) for tare and this use of tear | |
| Jun 13, 2013 at 15:48 | comment | added | tinyd | There's a British English expression "to be on the tear" which is fairly common and means "out to party/get drunk" e.g. "I finished my exams so I'm going out on the tear tonight" | |
| Jun 13, 2013 at 9:17 | comment | added | J.R. | @Irene: tear here rhymes with air, not ear. | |
| Jun 13, 2013 at 9:15 | comment | added | Irene | Illuminating answer. What is the pronunciation of the word "tear" in this idiom? | |
| Jun 13, 2013 at 9:02 | history | answered | Andrew Leach♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |