rig

The rigging of a sailing ship or other such craft.

Noun nautical, transport

  1. The rigging of a sailing ship or other such craft.
  2. Special equipment or gear used for a particular purpose.
    • The climbers each had a different rig for climbing that particular rockface.
    • We used a ground-level rig to safely learn how to tile a gable roof.
  3. A large truck, especially a semi-trailer truck.
    • Every rig at the truckstop had custom-made mud-flaps.
    • "Big Joe's the name," an' I told him mine / He said: "The name of my rig is Phantom 309." - 1967, Tommy Faile, “Phantom 309”, performed by Red Sovine:
    • There's armored cars, and tanks, and Jeeps And rigs of every size. Yeah, them chicken coops was full o'bears And choppers filled the skies. - 1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road,...
  4. The special apparatus used for drilling wells.
  5. A costume or an outfit.
    • My sister and I always made our own rigs for Halloween.
  6. A personal computer, typically one modified for looks.
    • When I saw a special version of Quake running on Voodoo hardware, I knew I would be forking out quite a bit of money on my gaming rig. - 2004, Radford Castro, Let Me Play: Stories of Gaming and Emulation, page 104:
  7. An imperfectly castrated horse, sheep etc.
  8. Radio equipment, especially a citizen's band transceiver.
  9. Equipment used for taking recreational drugs.
    • […] does not know how to pick up the liquid from the cooker, and he asks someone else to use his rig to put his part in his rig. - 1995, Reyes Ramos, An Ethnographic Study of Heroin Abuse by Mexican Americans in San...
    • (Gregg later admitted Cher's inadvertent discovery of his “rig” [drug bag] complete with heroin, needles, and rubber bands, hastened their breakup.) - 2014, Josiah Howard, Cher: Strong Enough:
  10. A model outfitted with parameterized controls for animation.
    • As for the facial stuff, I just didn't have the time to do a really good facial rig and just worked with the one I had, which was insufficiently flexible to accomplish what needed to be done. - 2002 September 20, Steph...
    • As facial models become more and more complex, it is increasingly difficult to define a consistent rig that can work well for every possible movement. - 2012, Verónica Orvalho, Pedro Bastos, Frederic Parke, Bruno...

Origin

From Early Modern English rygge, probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian rigge (“to bind up; wrap around; rig; equip”), Swedish dialectal rigga (“to rig a horse”), Faroese rigga (“to rig; to equip and fit; to make s.th. function”). Possibly from Proto-Germanic *rik- (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European *rign-, *reyg- (“to bind”); or related to Old English *wrīhan, wrīohan, wrēohan, wrēon (“to bind; wrap up; cover”). See also wry (“to cover; clothe; dress; hide”).

Forms

rigs

Derived

Bermuda rig big rig Carolina rig dab rig drilling rig drill rig fore and aft rig fore-and-aft rig fractional rig gaff-rig gaff rig gunter rig hair rig jerry-rig junk rig jury-rig lighting rig Marconi rig nigger-rig oil rig oilrig piling rig rig doctor rigless

Noun obsolete

  1. A wanton person; one given to unbecoming conduct.
    • Let none condemn them [girls] for Rigs, becauſe thus hoiting vvith boys, ſeeing the ſimplicity of their age vvas a Patent to priviledge any innocent paſtime, and fevv mo[r]e years vvill make them bluſh themſelves into...
  2. A promiscuous woman.
    • However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this...
  3. A sportive or unbecoming trick; a frolic.
    • Away went Gilpin neck or nought, / Away went hat and wig, / He little dreamt when he ſet out / Of running ſuch a rig. - 1782, William Cowper, “The Diverting History of John Gilpin, […]”, in The Task, a Poem, […],...
  4. A blast of wind.
    • This ſanguine little king's-fiſher (not preſcient of the ſtorm, as by his inſtinct he ought to be) appearing at that uncertain ſeaſon, before the riggs of Old Michaelmas were yet well compoſed, and when the inclement...

Origin

Compare wriggle.

Forms

rigs

Derived

riggish riggite thimblerig

Noun Northern England, Scotland

  1. A ridge.

Origin

See ridge.

Forms

rigs

Noun algebra, mathematics

  1. An algebraic structure similar to a ring, but without the requirement that every element have an additive inverse.
    • The set of natural numbers N with the usual operations of addition and multiplication is a rig, but not a ring. The set of integers Z is a ring. For a rig/ring (R,0,+,1,−), the set of polynomials R[x] on a generator x...
    • 2004, Jerzy Marcinkowski (editor), Computer Science Logic: 18th International Workshop, CSL 2004, Proceedings, Springer, LNCS 3210, page 17, It follows that for each object A its endomorphisms End_C(A) = C(A,A) has the...

Origin

From ring (“algebraic structure”), omitting the letter n to suggest the lack of negatives. Compare rng (“structure like a ring but lacking a multiplicative identity”).

Forms

rigs

Synonyms

semiring

Verb nautical, transport

  1. To fit out with a harness or other equipment.

    1. (transitive, nautical) To equip and fit (a ship) with sails, shrouds, and yards.

    2. (transitive, manufacturing) To move (a heavy object) with the help of slings, hoists, block and tackle, levers, or similar equipment.

      • To rig such massive equipment requires experienced riggers
  2. To dress or clothe in some costume.
  3. To make or construct something in haste or in a makeshift manner.
    • rig up a makeshift shelter
  4. To manipulate something dishonestly for personal gain or discriminatory purposes.
    • to rig an election
    • Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult.[…]Governments have to find the best people to fill important jobs: there is a limited supply of people who understand the...

    Synonyms: swing

  5. To make free with; hence, to steal; to pilfer.
    • Sir Hew is a rigging thy gate or the plow - 1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […],...
  6. To outfit a model with controls for animation.
    • We can think of rigging a 3D character as a process analogous to setting up the strings that control a puppet. - 2012, Verónica Orvalho, Pedro Bastos, Frederic Parke, Bruno Oliveira, Xenxo Alvarez, “A Facial Rigging...

Forms

rigs rigging rigged

Derived

derig prerig rerig rigger rig out rig up unrig

Verb intransitive, obsolete

  1. To play the wanton; to act in an unbecoming manner; to play tricks.
    • 1616, George Chapman, The Hymn to Hermes, in The Whole Works of Homer (tr.), Rigging and rifling all ways, and no noise / Made with thy soft feet, where it all destroys.

Forms

rigs rigging rigged

Synonyms

harlotize