tear loose

tear loose

To escape or extricate oneself from the constraints of someone, something, or some situation with or as with a great deal of force. A reflexive pronoun can be used between "tear" and "loose." He tore loose from his attacker's grip and managed to wrestle the gun out of the criminal's hands. I managed to tear myself loose from the boring conversation and went to go find someone I knew.
See also: loose, tear
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

tear loose (from someone or something)

to manage to break away from someone or something. The quarterback tore loose and took twenty yards for a first down. Barlowe tore loose from Bill and made for the door.
See also: loose, tear
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

tear yourself/something ˈloose (from somebody/something)

,

tear ˈloose

escape from somebody/something by using great force; become separated from somebody/something in this way: He put his arms round my neck but I tore myself loose and ran for help. As he held onto the bushes, he felt them tear loose from the rock.
See also: loose, something, tear
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

tear loose

verb
See tear loose from someone/something
See also: loose, tear

tear loose (from someone/something)

(tɛr...)
in. to manage to break away from someone or something. The quarterback tore loose and ran twenty yards for a first down.
See also: loose, someone, something, tear
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • not do (someone or oneself) any favors
  • identify with
  • orient
  • orient to
  • orient to (something)
  • buy (yourself) time
  • buy time
  • spiff up
  • spiffed up
  • associate oneself with
References in periodicals archive
Suzi's low, fast European car goes 0-60 in about six seconds and leaves a sonic boom in its wake, will make your liver tear loose in the turns, and you can carry two bags of feed corn in the trunk if you have to (although people do stare at Tractor Supply).
On accuracy
The tube is just one more thing that can break or tear loose. I would rather train the peep sight (through twisting the string) to come back correctly instead.
My greatest fear
The picture opens in medias res with a wonderfully terse enactment of the uprising, starting with Cinque's face in extreme close-up (he's trying with bloody fingers to tear loose his shackles) and ending with a full-body shot of him--one of those Riefenstahl compositions but with much more soul, since he now brandishes a saber, with which he's run through the captain of La Amistad.
Amistad
Then it fell apart: "I looked up from my desk to see a 35-foot blade tip tear loose and fly 400 feet high and 600 feet downwind," he recalls.
The last days of the world's largest windmill