rip
/ɑː(ɹ)aɪ ˈpiː/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.26 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
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.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "to rip a garment; to rip up a floor"
- "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."
- "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."
- "On the other hand, HMS Colossus takes multiple hits from several battleships at once, having drifted closer to the German fleet than the rest of her squadron. She explodes as multiple magazine detonations rip the ship apart, and is lost with all hands."
- "My shirt ripped when it was caught on a bramble."
- "A child untimely ripped from its parents' arms."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: rippen, *rupjaną, *roub-
Usage
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
- Slang
- American usage
- Archaic
- Australian usage
- New Zealand usage
- British usage