cut/tear sth/sb to ribbons

Definition

to destroy or badly damage something or someone by cutting or tearing them many times

Our new kitten has torn the living room curtains to ribbons.

figurative The attacking soldiers were cut to ribbons (= killed) by machine-gun fire.

(Definition of cut/tear sth/sb to ribbons from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

to worry about something

Read our blog about how the English language behaves.

Find words and meanings that have just started to be used in English, and let us know what you think of them.