tear gas

1 of 2

noun

: a solid, liquid, or gaseous substance that on dispersion in the atmosphere irritates mucous membranes resulting especially in blinding of the eyes with tears and that is used chiefly (as by the police and the military) to disperse large crowds of people

tear-gas

2 of 2

verb

variants or tear gas or less commonly teargas
tear-gassed or tear gassed also teargassed; tear-gassing or tear gassing also teargassing; tear-gases or tear gasses also teargasses

transitive verb

: to use tear gas on
The troops then tear-gassed the crowd of several hundred, mostly teenagers and young men, which scattered in great confusion, but re-formed later.Roger Daniels

Examples of tear gas in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Both had to shield themselves from tear gas canisters and rubber bullets after suffering those injuries. Rachel Weiner, Washington Post, 8 Mar. 2024 Del Olmo never entered the public consciousness like his predecessor, Ruben Salazar, the Times columnist killed in 1970 by a tear gas canister fired by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy during the Chicano Moratorium in East Los Angeles. Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2024 Security forces have used concrete and metal barricades, as well as drones carrying tear gas canisters, to stop them from advancing. Reuters, NBC News, 16 Feb. 2024 By late morning, the police had made a half dozen attempts to disperse them using a mix of tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray, but to no avail. Elliot Ackerman, WIRED, 12 Feb. 2024 The two were separated inside the Capitol after officers deployed tear gas. The Arizona Republic, 6 Jan. 2024 Last year, women in Turkey protested in Istanbul despite a ban on an IWD march before police used tear gas to disperse the crowd and detain some protesters. Mike Snider, USA TODAY, 8 Mar. 2024 Police attacked one of the buses, shooting tear gas through the windows to force students out. Alma Guillermoprieto, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024 In the days after the election, protests broke out across the country with footage emerging of demonstrators being roughly handled and arrested, and of police using tear gas to disperse these gatherings. Hasan Ali, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 Feb. 2024
Verb
Officers batter protesters with plastic shields, and noxious plumes rise from the street where tear-gas canisters have been deployed. David Peisner, Rolling Stone, 24 Mar. 2024 Jean Marc Jean, 37, a freelance journalist, was covering antigovernment protests last month when a police tear-gas canister hit his left eye. Frances Robles, New York Times, 17 Mar. 2024 One of his earliest memories was of being rushed away by his dad from a tear-gas canister that landed near him. Rozina Ali, New York Times, 28 Feb. 2024 The authorities have blocked the social media accounts of some protest leaders and even used drones that were once billed as an agricultural innovation to drop tear-gas grenades on the demonstrators. Suhasini Raj, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2024 Outside Julia’s apartment, the detritus of protests littered the street—tipped-over trash cans, twisted metal barricades, expended tear-gas canisters. Elliot Ackerman, WIRED, 8 Feb. 2024 Matter protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, and provided them with tips on dealing with tear-gas inhalation. Emma Green, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2023 Flooding, tear-gas, and other tools can also be critical when fighting in tunnels, basements, or interior spaces. David Kilcullen, Foreign Affairs, 23 Oct. 2023 Tensions surrounding Kashmir were particularly high at the time, following the death of a teenage boy who was hit with a tear-gas canister by Indian forces. Time, 11 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tear gas.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1916, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1918, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tear gas was in 1916

Dictionary Entries Near tear gas

Cite this Entry

“Tear gas.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tear%20gas. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

teargas

1 of 2 verb
tear·​gas ˈti(ə)r-ˌgas How to pronounce teargas (audio)
: to use tear gas on

tear gas

2 of 2 noun
: any of various substances that cause eye irritation and blind the eyes with tears when released into the air and that are used mostly to scatter mobs

Medical Definition

tear gas

noun
: a solid, liquid, or gaseous substance that on dispersion in the atmosphere irritates mucous membranes resulting especially in blinding of the eyes with tears

More from Merriam-Webster on tear gas

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