Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - tear away

If you tear someone away from a place or activity, you force them to leave the place or stop doing the activity, even though they want to remain there or carry on. Fame hasn’t torn her away from her beloved Liverpool... Japan’s education ministry ordered the change to encourage students to tear themselves away from textbooks... I stared at the man, couldn’t tear my eyes away. PHRASAL VERB: oft with brd-neg, V n P from n, V pron-refl P from n, V n P, also V pron-refl P