From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishrip something ↔ apart phrasal verbto tear or pull something to pieces He was ripped apart by savage beasts in the forest. → rip→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
rip apart• She cried her heart out, all because of an unruly trouble-making, black-hearted child who was ripping her apart.• The coyotes and jungle cats in the area rip their prey apart and devour it.• They had to keep ripping the knee-caps apart and rebuilding them.• A pair of incandescent explosions ripped the metal apart, and the door was knocked spinning into the cave.• It was also the mortal enemy of horses and would rip them apart in seconds with its mighty talons.• She was chewing savagely on something, making nasal snarling sounds as she ripped the thing apart with her sharp teeth. 