take to pieces

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I can tell you beforehand, the Princess will nail you three riddles together that it would take Old Moore himself seven years to take to pieces, Heaven knows.

From Turandot, Princess of China A Chinoiserie in Three Acts by Bithell, Jethro

In attempting, therefore, to take to pieces the machinery, there was the risk of destroying it.

From Toilers of the Sea by Hugo, Victor

"And yet," said she, "you have begun to take to pieces and destroy our family, as I have destroyed this flower."

From Darius the Great Makers of History by Abbott, Jacob

The few books that I have tried to take to pieces and to re-construct are not enough—or at least it would be necessary to deal with them more searchingly.

From The Craft of Fiction by Lubbock, Percy

"Yet," he proceeds, "those despicable clothes had, at different periods of time, bedecked real lords and dukes," and were of considerable value, if only to strip of their decorations and take to pieces.

From A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character by Cook, Dutton