Skip to the word

Added 9 October 2026

rip

/ɹɪp/ noun

Latin root: rubus Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about rip at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A dissolute man in fashionable society.
An opening made forcibly as by pulling apart.
there was a rip in his pants
A stretch of turbulent water in a river or the sea caused by one current flowing into or across another current.

verb

Tear or be torn violently.
The curtain ripped from top to bottom
Move precipitously or violently.
The tornado ripped along the coast
Cut (wood) along the grain.

Origin

From Middle English rippen, from earlier ryppen (“to pluck”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rupjaną, *ruppōną, intensive of *raupijaną, causative of Proto-Indo-European *roub- ~ *reub-, variant of *Hrewp- (“to break”). See also West Frisian rippe, ripje, roppe, ropje (“to rip”), Dutch dialectal rippen, Low German ruppen, German Low German röpen, German rupfen, also Old English rīpan, rīepan (“to plunder”), West Frisian rippe (“to rip, tear”), German raufen (“to rip”); also Albanian rrabe ‘maquis’, possibly Latin rubus (“bramble”). More at reave, rob.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word