English

A rip (current)

Noun

rip ‎(plural rips)

1. A tear (in paper, etc.).
2. A type of tide or current.
   1. (Australia) A strong outflow of surface water, away from the shore, that returns water from incoming waves.
      • 2000, Andrew Short, Beaches of the Queensland Coast: Cooktown to Coolangatta, page 38,

        Rhythmic beaches consist of a rhythmic longshore bar that narrows and deepens when the rip crosses the breaker, and in between broadens, shoals and approaches the shore. It does not, however, reach the shore, with a continuous rip feeder channel feeding the rips to either side of the bar.

      • 2005, Paul Smitz, Australia & New Zealand on a Shoestring, Lonely Planet, page 466,

        Undertows (or ‘rips’) are the main problem. If you find yourself being carried out by a rip, the important thing to do is just keep afloat; don′t panic or try to swim against the rip, which will exhaust you. In most cases the current stops within a couple of hundred metres of the shore and you can then swim parallel to the shore for a short way to get out of the rip and make your way back to land.

      • 2010, Jeff Wilks, Donna Prendergast, Chapter 9: Beach Safety and Millennium Youth: Travellers and Sentinels, Pierre Benckendorff, Gianna Moscardo, Donna Pendergast, Tourism and Generation Y, page 100,

        Given that a large number of all rescues conducted by Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) occur in rips (a rip being a relatively narrow, seaward moving stream of water), this is critical surf-safety information (Surf Life Saving Australia, 2005).

3. (slang) A comical, embarrassing, or hypocritical event or action.
4. (slang) A hit (dose) of marijuana.
5. (Britain, Eton College) A black mark given for substandard schoolwork.

Synonyms

• tear

Related terms

• riptide
• rip current

Translations

Verb

rip ‎(third-person singular simple present rips, present participle ripping, simple past and past participle ripped)

1. (transitive) To divide or separate the parts of (especially something flimsy such as paper or fabric), by cutting or tearing; to tear off or out by violence.

   to rip a garment; to rip up a floor

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess:

     A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.

   1. (intransitive) To tear apart; to rapidly become two parts.

      My shirt ripped when it caught on a bramble.

2. (transitive) To get by, or as if by, cutting or tearing.
   • Granville

     He'll rip the fatal secret from her heart.

3. (intransitive, figuratively) To move quickly and destructively.
   • 2007, Roger Baker, Emotional Processing (page 136)

     On 18 November 1987 a horrific flash fire ripped through the escalators and ticket hall of King's Cross tube station, killing thirty people.

4. (woodworking) To cut wood along (parallel to) the grain. Contrast crosscut.
5. (transitive, slang, computing) To copy data from CD, DVD, Internet stream, etc. to a hard drive, portable device, etc.
6. (slang, narcotics) To take a "hit" of marijuana.
7. (slang) To fart.
8. (transitive, US, slang) To mock or criticize (someone or something). (often used with on)
9. (transitive, slang, chiefly demoscene) To steal; to rip off.
   • 2001, "rex deathstar", Opensource on demoscene (discussion on Internet newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos)

     opensource is a double-edged sword. while you have a chance of people using and improving on the code, you will also have the chance of lamers ripping it.

   • 2002, "Ray Norrish", Barbarian demo circa 1988? (on newsgroup alt.emulators.amiga)

     […] an old demo by some bods called "kellogs and donovan" which had ripped graphics from the game "Barbarian" […]

10. To move or act fast, to rush headlong.
11. (archaic) To tear up for search or disclosure, or for alteration; to search to the bottom; to discover; to disclose; usually with up.
    • Clarendon

      They ripped up all that had been done from the beginning of the rebellion.

    • Milton

      For brethren to debate and rip up their falling out in the ear of a common enemy […] is neither wise nor comely.

12. (intransitive, surfing, slang) To surf extremely well.

Derived terms

• let rip
• to rip it up (ripping it up)
• rip off
• rippable
• rip along
• ripper

Synonyms

• tear

Related terms

• ripper

Translations

Etymology 2

Compare Icelandic hrip, a box or basket; perhaps akin to English corb. Compare ripier.

Noun

rip ‎(plural rips)

1. A wicker basket for fish.

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain; perhaps a variant of rep ‎(“reprobate”).

Noun

rip ‎(plural rips)

1. (colloquial, regional, dated) A worthless horse; a nag. [from 18th c.]
2. (colloquial, regional, dated) An immoral man; a rake, a scoundrel. [from 18th c.]
   • 1922, The Saturday Review (volume 133, page 359)

     Miss Compton, in 'Other People's Worries,' asks rhetorically whether a young rip was not in the Blank divorce case.

   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not…, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), page 76:

     If there were, in clubs and places where men talk, unpleasant rumours as to himself he preferred it to be thought that he was the rip, not his wife the strumpet.

Anagrams

• PRI

References

1. ↑ Marlies Philippa et al., eds., Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands, A-Z, s.v. “ruif” (Amsterdam UP, 3 Dec. 2009) , citing G.G. Kloeke, “Die niederländischen Wörter ruif ‘Raufe’ und luif(el) ‘Schutzdach’”, in Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter 17 (1952), 46-50.
2. ↑ Jan de Vries & F. de Tollenaere, Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek, 4th edn., s.v. “rob 3” (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 581.
3. ↑ Vladimir Orel, Albanian Etymological Dictionary, s.v. “rrabe” (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 376.
4. ↑ Wolfgang Pfeifer, ed., Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, s.v. “raufen” (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbucher Vertrag, 2005), 1090.

Lojban

Rafsi

rip

1. rafsi of cripu.

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English reef.

Noun

rip

1. reef

Derived terms

• drairip ‎(“low tide”)