Meaning – Difference Between ‘Rip Up’ and ‘Rip Down’

differencemeaning

For the next two years we lived not just next door to the wild ocean,
but to a massive construction site. The house was bad enough, but the
ripping up of the trees, the building of roads, the manicuring of once wild lawn was enough to stir something close to rage even in a
calm observer.

Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark by Paul Bogard

Is “rip down” also possible here? What is the difference between “rip up” and “rip down”? Their definitons seem similar.

Rip up : to completely destroy (something) by tearing it into pieces
(Merriam Webster)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rip%20up

Rip down:

  1. To dismantle or disassemble a large object or structure.

  2. To demolish a large object or structure. (the free dictionary)

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/rip+down

Best Answer

rip up/out/down

There is also rip out. Rip is a violent-type action. Out/in/up goes to the direction of the action being exerted or performed. Ripping up/out/down is the gerund noun. The ripping action is associated with a direction and a place from which it is dislodged.

So, you might have:

The trees were ripped up by the storm. [pulled up by their roots, but it can also be by people with machines]

He was so frustrated he wanted to rip out his hair. [pull his hair out by pulling up on it]

They ripped down the buildings. [pulled the buildings down by exerting a downward force on them with a machine]

The mother ripped the ice cream cone out of her young son's hand because it had fallen on the ground and was all dirty.

He ripped up the paper and threw it away.

That last one is a phrasal verb and does mean to destroy, and is often used about paper or textiles. The others are not strictly speaking phrasal verbs.

The trees were ripped up [from the ground or out of the ground].

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