View synonyms for ripper

ripper

[ rip-er ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a person or thing that rips. rip.
Also ripper bill, ripper act. a legislative bill or act for taking powers of appointment to and removal from office away from the usual holders of these powers and conferring them unrestrictedly on a chief executive, as a governor or mayor, or on a board of officials.
a double-ripper.
a killer who dispatches and often mutilates victims with a knife or similar weapon.
Mining. a hooklike tool, attached to earth-moving machinery, for tearing away ore, rock, etc.
Chiefly British Slang. something especially strong, fine, or good of its kind.

ripper

/ ˈrɪpə /

Origin of ripper¹

First recorded in 1605–15; rip ¹ + -er ¹

Did the Ripper quit because he feared that he was close to being caught?

This makes the guide to the Jack the Ripper Walk seem rather dated.

Of course, you could protest that Sherlock did not really exist and the Ripper did.

Later heads of Scotland Yard admitted that the Ripper should have been caught.

LONDON — If Sherlock Holmes was such a smart detective, why was he not put on the case of Jack the Ripper?

Old Ripper, a talkative, discontented man, stopped and ventured to enter on his grievances.

Mr. Ripper's opinion was that he had lost his senses with the blow on the temple, and fell an easy prey to death.

Mr. Ripper's logic tended to the belief that he could not be punished if he stuck to the avowal of having seen nothing.

Such cases as that of Jack the Ripper, for instance, are undoubtedly due to a special tendency to take life.

But as the policemen closed in around me there was a cry raised, "It is Jack the Ripper in disguise."

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