Tears back showing some spirit (4)
I believe the answer is:
rips
'tears' is the definition.
(rip is a kind of tear)
'back showing some spirit' is the wordplay.
'back showing' becomes 'rip' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'some' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'spirit' is 's'.
'rip'+'s'='RIPS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rips that I've seen before include "cuts" , "Tears violently" .)