"rending" in the verb sense
1. rend, rip, rive, pull
tear or be torn violently
"The curtain ripped from top to bottom"
"pull the cooked chicken into strips"
"rending" in the adjective sense
1. rending, ripping, splitting
resembling a sound of violent tearing as of something ripped apart or lightning splitting a tree
"the tree split with a great ripping sound"
"heard a rending roar as the crowd surged forward"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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