To tear down is to pull a building to pieces. Demolition, in plainer words.
It splits round an object and it is chiefly American, since British English says knock down or pull down for the same act. There is a strong figurative use about ideas and institutions, so tearing down a system means dismantling it entirely, and it usually appears in arguments about whether anything is being built in its place. Tear down that wall is one of the most quoted political sentences of the last century.
1phrasetear downTo demolish a building or structure.
“They plan to tear down the old wing next year.”
Practised in Phrasal Verbs, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.
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