tear

n 1: a drop of the clear salty saline solution secreted by the

lacrimal glands; "his story brought tears to her eyes"

[syn: {teardrop}]

2: an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart; "there was a

rip in his pants" [syn: {rip}, {rent}, {split}]

3: an occasion for heavy drinking; "they went on a bust that

lasted three days" [syn: {bust}, {bender}, {binge}, {toot},

{booze-up}]

4: the act of tearing; "he took the manuscript in both hands

and gave it a mighty tear"

v 1: separate or cause to separate abruptly; "The rope snapped";

"tear the paper" [syn: {rupture}, {snap}, {bust}]

2: to separate or be separated by force: "planks were in danger

of being torn from the crossbars."

3: move quickly and violently; "The car tore down the street";

"He came charging into my office" [syn: {shoot}, {shoot

down}, {charge}, {buck}]

4: strip of feathers; as of chickens [syn: {pluck}, {pull}, {deplume},

{deplumate}, {displume}]

5: move precipitously or violently; "The tornado ripped along

the coast" [syn: {rip}]

6: fill with tears or shed tears; "Her eyes were tearing"

tar

("Tape ARchive", following {ar}) {Unix}'s

general purpose {archive} utility and the file format it uses.

Tar was originally intended for use with {magnetic tape} but,

though it has several {command line options} related to tape,

it is now used more often for packaging files together on

other media, e.g. for distribution via the {Internet}.

The resulting archive, a "tar file" (humourously, "tarball")

is often compressed, using {gzip} or some other form of

compression (see {tar and feather}).

There is a {GNU} version of tar called {gnutar} with several

improvements over the standard versions.

{Filename extension}: .tar

{MIME type}: unregistered, but commonly application/x-tar

{Unix manual page}: tar(1).

Compare {shar}, {zip}.

(1998-05-02)