rend the air

“We wore our pajamas, dressing gowns and slippers the whole day, even doing housework and cooking in that garb. If someone came to the door, screams of dismay would rend the air: Three of us would hide, and one unfortunate would be designated to throw on some jeans and a shirt to answer the door.”

Screams rend the air and steel flashes.

In the dream, screams rend the air and somehow I know that the pain and suffering are my fault, that the dead have fallen by my hand.

The words are spoken quietly, but they rend the air like a siren.

The sound of the weird wailing of some hundred women is perfectly indescribable, always ending up with a piercing shriek which seems to rend the air and freeze one’s blood.