rend one's garments

From the biblical and Jewish practice of keriah, the tearing of clothes when in mourning.

rend one's garments (third-person singular simple present rends one's garments, present participle rending one's garments, simple past and past participle rent one's garments or rended one's garments)

1. (idiomatic) To fret or moan in an excessive or theatrical manner.
   • 1938 February 12, J. Will Taylor, “Address at Knocksville, Tenn.”, in Congressional Record: Appendix of the Third Session of the Seventy-Fifth Congress of the United States of America, volume 83, part 9, page 663:

     Yes, my friends, it is amusing to see these new dealers wring their hands and rend their garments on account of the distress of the great army of underprivileged in our country.

   • 1984, James J. Kilpatrick, The Writer’s Art‎, →ISBN:

     Rosenblatt never sawed the air or rent his garments. When he began his essay, he knew how he meant to end it.

   • 2010 June 12, Mike Carlton, “Funny, they remember their epithets but not their manners”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎:

     I feel much the same as I watch the mining magnates wringing their hands, rending their garments and uttering up their piteous cries about the horrors of the resources super profits tax.

   • 2015 December 17, Devin Friedman, “J. R. Smith Is Always Open”, in GQ‎:

     Remember, after “The Decision,” when the people of Cleveland took to the streets, lost their ever-loving minds, rended their garments, cried into their pierogies, and burned their LeBron jerseys? And everyone was like LeBron will never be welcomed back here!

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rend,‎ garment.