English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: rĭft, IPA(key): /ɹɪft/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪft

Etymology 1

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From Middle English rift, of North Germanic origin; akin to Danish rift, Norwegian Bokmål rift (breach), Old Norse rífa (to tear). More at rive.

Noun

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rift (plural rifts)

  1. A chasm or fissure.
    The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.
  2. A lack of cohesion; a state of conflict, incompatibility, or emotional distance.
    My marriage is in trouble: the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.
  3. A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
    • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 130:
      I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.
  4. A shallow place in a stream; a ford.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Portuguese: rifte
Translations
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Verb

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rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

  1. (intransitive) To form a rift; to split open.
  2. (transitive) To cleave; to rive; to split.
    to rift an oak
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
      to the dread rattling thunder / Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak / With his own bolt
    • 1822, William Wordsworth, A Jewish Family (in a small valley opposite St. Goar, upon the Rhine)[1], lines 9–11:
      The Mother—her thou must have seen, / In spirit, ere she came / To dwell these rifted rocks between.
    • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter III, [2]
      he stopped rigid as one petrified and gazed through the rifted logs of the raft into the water.

Etymology 2

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From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

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rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

  1. (obsolete outside Scotland and northern UK) To belch.

Etymology 3

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Verb

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rift (obsolete)

  1. past participle of rive
    The mightie trunck halfe rent, with ragged rift
    Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefull drift.
    • 1986 December 21, Corinne Lightweaver, “AIDS Fears Shadow Lesbian's Memories”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 23, page 6:
      Whether these men are alive or not, the fragile meeting ground I shared with them has been rift apart by a microscopic menace they didn't tell us about in high school biology.

Anagrams

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French

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Noun

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rift m (plural rifts)

  1. (geology) rift

Norwegian Bokmål

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Etymology

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From the verb rive.

Noun

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rift f or m (definite singular rifta or riften, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

  1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
  2. a break (in the clouds)
  3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
  4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

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References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Etymology

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From the verb rive or riva.

Noun

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rift f (definite singular rifta, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

  1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
  2. a break (in the clouds)
  3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
  4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

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References

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Old English

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Etymology

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From Proto-Germanic *riftą, *riftiją, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rebʰ- (to cover; arch over; vault). Cognate with Old High German peinrefta (legwear; leggings), Old Norse ript, ripti (a kind of cloth; linen jerkin).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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rift n (nominative plural rift)

  1. a veil; curtain; cloak
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Descendants

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  • Middle English: rift

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French rift.

Noun

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rift n (plural rifturi)

  1. rift

Declension

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Scots

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Etymology

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From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

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rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle riftin, simple past riftit, past participle riftit)

  1. to belch, burp