The verb rend means to tear with force or violence. If you are sewing a shirt and haven't been paying attention, to fix it you will rend your shirt from collar to hem. The past tense of the verb is rent. Your shirt was rent from collar to hem.
Tear, rip, and rend are all synonyms for each other, but it's a question of degree. Of the three, rend implies the most violent separation. You can also use rend figuratively to express great emotional distress. If you're betrayed by a friend, it rends your heart right out of your chest. The word can also be used figuratively to mean like a forceful tear. On the roller coaster, your scream rends the air as you go upside down and barrel around turns.
