rive
A place torn; a rent; a rift.
Noun
- A place torn; a rent; a rift.
Origin
From Middle English riven (“to rive”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse rífa (“to rend, tear apart”), from Proto-Germanic *rīfaną (“to tear, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to crumble, tear”). Cognate with Danish rive (“to tear”), Old Frisian rīva (“to tear”), Old English ārǣfan (“to let loose, unwrap”), Old Norse ript (“breach of contract, rift”), Norwegian Bokmål rive (“to tear”), Swedish riva (”to tear”) and Albanian rrip (“belt, rope”). More at rift.
Forms
Synonyms
Noun Entry 2
- A bank or shore.
Origin
Compare Latin ripa (“shore”)
Forms
Verb Entry 3
- To tear apart by force; to rend; to split; to cleave.
- I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds / Have rived the knotty oaks[…] - 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies...
- To pierce or cleave with a weapon.
- And therwith she toke the swerd from her loue that lay ded and fylle to the ground in a swowne / And whan she aroos she made grete dole out of mesure / the whiche sorowe greued Balyn passyngly sore / and he wente vnto...
- And the sword that had visited Earth from so far away smote like the falling of thunderbolts [...] and the runes in Alveric’s far-travelled sword exulted, and roared at the elf-knight; until in the dark of the wood,...
- To break apart; to split.
- The varlet at his plaint was grieu'd so sore, / That his deepe wounded hart in two did riue[…]. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie,...
- Freestone i.e. that rives, splits, and breaks in any direction. - 1728, John Woodward, An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England:
- To the west, the country descends more gradually to the extensive plains of the Nile Valley but is riven by the rugged valleys of the Takezze and other Nile tributaries. - 2012, David W. Phillipson, Foundations of an...
- To burst open; explode; discharge.
- Ten thousand French have ta'en the sacrament, To rive their dangerous artillery - 1821, William Shakespeare, James Boswell, Richard Farmer, The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare:
- To use a technique of splitting or sawing wood radially from a log (e.g. clapboards).
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Derived
Verb Entry 4
- To land.