ribbon
Americannoun
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a woven strip or band of fine material, as silk or rayon, varying in width and finished off at the edges, used for ornament, tying, etc.
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material in such strips.
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anything resembling or suggesting a ribbon or woven band.
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a band of inked material used in a typewriter, adding machine, etc., that supplies ink for printing the figure on the striking typeface onto the paper beneath.
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a strip of material, as satin or rayon, being or representing a medal or similar decoration, especially a military one.
an overseas ribbon.
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ribbons,
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torn or ragged strips; shreds.
clothes torn to ribbons.
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reins for driving.
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a long, thin flexible band of metal, as for a spring, a band saw, or a tapeline.
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Also called ribbon board. Also called ledger, ledger board. Also called ribbon strip,. Carpentry. Also a thin horizontal piece attached to studding to support the ends of joists.
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Architecture. came.
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Nautical. Also a distinctive narrow band or stripe painted along the exterior of a hull.
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Shipbuilding. ribband.
verb (used with object)
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to adorn with ribbon.
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to mark with something suggesting ribbon.
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to separate into ribbonlike strips.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a narrow strip of fine material, esp silk, used for trimming, tying, etc
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something resembling a ribbon; a long strip
a ribbon of land
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a long thin flexible band of metal used as a graduated measure, spring, etc
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a long narrow strip of ink-impregnated cloth for making the impression of type characters on paper in a typewriter or similar device
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(plural) ragged strips or shreds (esp in the phrase torn to ribbons )
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a small strip of coloured cloth signifying membership of an order or award of military decoration, prize, or other distinction
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a small, usually looped, strip of coloured cloth worn to signify support for a charity or cause
a red AIDS ribbon
verb
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to adorn with a ribbon or ribbons
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to mark with narrow ribbon-like marks
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to reduce to ribbons; tear into strips
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ribbonsimple
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ribbonssimple
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have ribbonedperfect
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has ribbonedperfect
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am ribboningprogressive
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are ribboningprogressive
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is ribboningprogressive
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have been ribboningperfect progressive
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has been ribboningperfect progressive
Past
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ribbonedsimple
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had ribbonedperfect
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was ribboningprogressive
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were ribboningprogressive
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had been ribboningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ribbon
First recorded in 1520–30; variant of Middle English riban(d), from Old French, variant of r(e)uban, perhaps from Germanic; see band 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
At the school, including during my entangled session on the river, we used ribbon instead of flies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Far from staging the blue ribbon Ulster senior finals it will now only be able to host lower ranking fixtures.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
And she’s recently cut the ribbon on Café do Capa, an open-air capybara-themed stop along the cycling path.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
By comparison, only one out of 55 eastern ribbon snakes and three out of 36 ring necked snakes tested positive.
From Science Daily ● May 26, 2026
She poked Pita’s baby fat and pulled on the dress collar’s silk ribbon bow.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Crisp bacon, juicy diced tomatoes and ribbons of shaved green cabbage get folded in at the end, where they stay cool, crunchy and unmistakably BLT-adjacent.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
And then, the turn: each bowl is finished with a poached egg, ribbons of chard, lemon, aioli and toast.
From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2026
By 2014, tourists were improvising with items like scrunchies, ribbons and earphones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
Yellow ribbons are tied around mailboxes and roadside library posts.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
The woman wears a dress something akin to a bridal gown constructed for a ballerina, white and frothy and laced with black ribbons that flutter in the night air.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Proceedings start in Jedburgh with the ribboned ball being thrown into a ruck of the two teams.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
Light jazz played from unseen speakers in a grassy landscape ribboned with walkways and dotted with drought-tolerant shrubbery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2025
From here, go anywhere you please: via ribboned dark greens and fried breadcrumbs, cherry tomatoes and a few pats of butter, tinned fish and a shower of fresh dill, ground lamb and dry red wine.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2022
Selected from the Museo del Traje in Madrid, the pieces reveal meticulous detail — the excess jewels of the La Alberca dress, the precise wicker hats of Extremadura, the ribboned capes of Zamora.
From New York Times ● Sep. 11, 2017
Stands of palmettos and live oaks met the car as the road ribboned out straight in its last sprint to the barrier islands.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
While the two roads ribboning away from the intersection were easily identifiable, everything else in the frame had changed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2023
Every single part of the dress is made out of duct tape, including its striped ribboning, embroidered flowers, flowy sleeves and intricate lacework.
From Fox News ● Jul. 23, 2021
“So if you’re in a pet shop, do not call her,” Venus said, her arms and legs ribboning out like plains-state freeways from her shorts and tank top.
From New York Times ● Aug. 22, 2019
They joined forces, ribboning the state in the Airstream, blaring John Philip Sousa marches on their approach to every town “at a volume which would probably make people deaf.”
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2016
The diffusion of a chemical through a matrix of protein can even create distinct, three-dimensional patterns—like a pool of syrup ribboning into oatmeal.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
