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Glite Dictionary
to tear hair out

to tear hair out

1 8.5
To feel very frustrated because you cannot fix a problem
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : arrancarse el pelo
  • Claire tears her hair out, fashions her own fiction where time erases itself outside.

Examples

  • Sometimes it made her want to tear her hair out, purple streak and all, knowing that what she was doing was performance life.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Polina wailed and tore her hair out as long as the ambulance was at the house, as long as it took the two ambulance workers to lift the unbending body and secure it on the stretcher.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • When I couldn't solve the math problem, I felt like I might tear my hair out in frustration.

  • Watching my favorite team lose again made me want to tear my hair out.

  • If the project deadline keeps getting pushed back, I'll be ready to tear my hair out.

Synonyms

to tear one's hair out
vsto tear hair out
  • Informal
1 7.7

To feel very frustrated and worried because of a problem

has identical meaning but uses a reflexive possessive form

Antonyms

to calm down
  • Informal
594 1.4

To become less angry, excited, or upset

to hold it together
  • Informal
61 5.6

Stay calm and control your feelings in a difficult situation

How Frustrated

to tear hair out
  • Informal
1 8.5
exasperated
18 4.4
frustrated
280 2.8
annoyed
77 1.0
irritated
44 3.1

Surface Forms

tear hair out infinitive
tearing hair out present participle
tears hair out third person singular
tore hair out past
torn hair out past participle

Morphology

tear + hair + out

The literal image of 'tear' + 'hair' + 'out' clearly evokes someone pulling out their hair in distress, so a learner who knows the words can likely infer a meaning related to extreme frustration. However, the expression is a conventionalized, figurative idiom (the action is not meant literally) and its exact pragmatic use and intensity are conventional, so it is not fully compositional.

Etymology

The idiom tear hair out comes from the image of someone grabbing their hair and pulling it out in panic or anger. That's why it means 'to be very frustrated'.