rip Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a dissolute man in fashionable society
    rake; rakehell; blood; roue; profligate.
  2. noun an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart
    tear; split; rent; snag.
    • there was a rip in his pants
    • she had snags in her stockings
  3. noun a stretch of turbulent water in a river or the sea caused by one current flowing into or across another current
    tide rip; crosscurrent; riptide; countercurrent.
  4. noun the act of rending or ripping or splitting something
    rent; split.
    • he gave the envelope a vigorous rip
  5. verb tear or be torn violently
    rive; pull; rend.
    • The curtain ripped from top to bottom
    • pull the cooked chicken into strips
  6. verb move precipitously or violently
    • The tornado ripped along the coast
  7. verb cut (wood) along the grain
  8. verb criticize or abuse strongly and violently
    • The candidate ripped into his opponent mercilessly

WordNet

Rip noun
Etymology
Cf. Icel. hrip a box or basket; perhaps akin to E. corb. Cf. Ripier.
Definitions
  1. A wicker fish basket.
Rip transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. AS. r&ymac;pan, also Sw. repa to ripple flax, D. repelen, G. reffen, riffeln, and E. raff, raffle. Cf. Raff, Ripple of flax.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Ripped ; present participle & verbal noun Ripping
Definitions
  1. To divide or separate the parts of, by cutting or tearing; to tear or cut open or off; to tear off or out by violence; as, to rip a garment by cutting the stitches; to rip off the skin of a beast; to rip up a floor; -- commonly used with up, open, off.
  2. To get by, or as by, cutting or tearing.
    He 'll rip the fatal secret from her heart. Granville.
  3. To tear up for search or disclosure, or for alteration; to search to the bottom; to discover; to disclose; -- usually with up.
    They ripped up all that had been done from the beginning of the rebellion. Clarendon.
    For brethern to debate and rip up their falling out in the ear of a common enemy . . . is neither wise nor comely. Milton.
  4. To saw (wood) lengthwise of the grain or fiber.
Rip noun
Definitions
  1. A rent made by ripping, esp. by a seam giving way; a tear; a place torn; laceration.
  2. Perh. a corruption of the first syllable of reprobate. A term applied to a mean, worthless thing or person, as to a scamp, a debauchee, or a prostitute, or a worn-out horse. Slang.
  3. A body of water made rough by the meeting of opposing tides or currents.

Webster 1913