rib
/ɹɪb/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.59 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of a series of long curved bones occurring in 12 pairs in humans and other animals and extending from the spine to or toward the sternum.
noun
A cut of meat enclosing one or more rib bones.
noun
Any of several curved members attached to a ship's keel and extending upward and outward to form the framework of the hull.
noun
A long, narrow, usually arched member projecting from the surface of a structure, especially such a member separating the webs of a vault
Example Sentences
- "On an early winter afternoon, clear but not cold, when the vegetable world was a weird multitude of skeletons through whose ribs the sun shone freely, a gleaming landau came to a pause on the crest of a hill in Wessex."
- "a broken rib on the umbrella"
- "'Near to it was the portrait of his rib, Dame Middleton.'"
- "He always gets ribbed for his outrageous shirts."
- "Mr. Musk, who wore a suit and tie to Thursday’s meeting instead of his usual T-shirt after Mr. Trump publicly ribbed him about his sloppy appearance, defended himself by saying that he had three companies with a market cap of tens of billions of dollars, and that his results spoke for themselves."
- "It [lead] were too gross To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave."
Etymology
From Middle English rib, ribbe, from Old English ribb (“rib”), from Proto-West Germanic *ribi, from Proto-Germanic *ribją (“rib, reef”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rebʰ- (“arch, ceiling, cover”). Cognate with Dutch rib (“rib”), Norwegian ribbe (“sparerib”), Norwegian ribben (“rib”), Low German ribbe (“rib”), German Rippe (“rib”), Old Norse rif (“rib, reef”), Serbo-Croatian rèbro (“rib”). (wife or woman): In reference to the creation of Eve from Adam's rib in the Bible.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.