Is ‘on (in) a tear’ a popular idiom?
I was drawn to the phrase, ‘on a tear,’ which I heard in audio in this week’s Barron’s magazine (June 6), reporting the good sales and profit performance of U.S. sneaker chain, Foot Locker:
It says:
Foot Locker is proving that expansion isn’t everything. The sneaker chain’s sales per square foot have been on a tear even as the company’s store count shrinks. That‘s done wonders for Foot Locker’s profit margins and stock price.
As I’m unfamiliar with the idiom, ‘on a tear,’ I consulted English dictionaries in both print and online.
The Cambridge, Oxford, and Merriam-Webster English dictionaries and the Oxford American Dictionary do not carry ‘on a tear’ as an idiom. I suspected it could be “in a tier,” but it doesn’t add up in the context.
However, I found ‘on a tear’ in Collins English Dictionary and urban dictionary.
Collins defines ‘on a tear’ as;
(slang) showing a sudden burst of energy. ex. Final domestic demand, then, was on a tear —— good news.
Urban Dictionary defines it as;
on a streak or series, usually a winning streak. Will sometimes be used semi-sarcastically to define a losing streak. ex. The market went up 14% in the least four weeks. The market is on a tear! –
And, Google Ngram shows that the usages of both ‘on a tear’ and ‘in a tear’ have been observed since early before 1840. The incidences of ‘on a tear’ is on rise from 0.000001 in 1970 to 0.0000025 after 2000 and onward, but incidences of 'in a tear' have been flattened out at the low level of 0.0000012 - 0.0000016 throughout the tracked period.
Now here are my questions:
- What is the plain and exact meaning of ‘on (in) a tear’ in the context of the above quote?
- Is ‘on (in) a tear’ a popular idiom?
- Why none of major English dictionaries such as CED, OED, OALED, MWED accommodates this phrase as an idiom in spite of a long presence of the phrase as shown in Google NGram?
Addendum:
The Barrons’ magazine seems to be fond of using "on a tear." It repeated this phrase again in its June 19 news-report (through AFN radio broadcast) reporting a marked improvement of U.S.'s largest closeout chain, Big Lots’ sales performance. It says
(the chain’s) Sales growth in Canada is on a tear. Any signs of the progress will likely allure investors back to Big Lots.
In a tear (or on a tear) does appear in OED:
3b. A spree (U.S. slang).
1896 Harper's Mag. Apr. 775/2 Got me off on a tear somehow, and by the time I was sober again the money was 'most all gone.
and
Draft additions 1993
A spree; in Sport, a successful run, a winning streak; esp. in phr. on a tear. U.S. slang.
The quote may be explained as
Foot Locker is proving that expansion isn’t everything. The sneaker chain’s sales per square foot have been rocketing even as the company’s store count shrinks. That’s done wonders for Foot Locker’s profit margins and stock price.
As to your other questions, the answer is that in a tear in that sense is probably not all that common, which is why it's not included in dictionaries. Google Ngrams may be misleading, because a large number of results will be for the lachrymal tear-stained or for a literal tear (=split, rent).
To pull a part, divide by force. The denotation paints the picture of the connotation: one is ripping through an expected obstacle or opponent which can be to the upside or down. Most often, the usage appears to the upside or in a positive direction.
While the usage may seem as slang, it is just an artful use of a well defined word into a term clearly understood by most.
It is not possible to be in a tear.
Not every common, or common sense, use of a word or term is documented as an idiom. If you catch my drift.
It seems to me that most of these answers are correct to a degree. I became interested in the phrase after coming across it in the folk-song "Mick Maguire". Here is the last verse (or last refrain): Johnny come up to the fire come up you're sitting in the draught/ Can't you see it's ould Maguire and he nearly drives me daft/ Sure I don't know what gets into him and he's always on the tear/ So sit where you are and never you dare, to give ould Maguire the chair
In this context - and the context of the rest of the song - its meaning would be "ranting and complaining". It's possible it could be "drunk" but it seems unlikely to me, as there are no references to drink.