Military. a reduction in the personnel of an armed service or unit.
a reduction in the number of persons employed by a business, government department, etc., especially for budgetary reasons.
a member of a Berber people, inhabiting the Atlas Mountains in Morocco
Also called: Rifian. Riffian. the dialect of Berber spoken by this people
See Er Rif
First recorded in 1945–50; special use of RIF
R(eduction) I(n) F(orce)
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Philippe of Macedoyne kyng Two Sones hadde be his wif, Whos fame is yit in Grece rif: Demetrius the ferste brother Was hote, and Perse.s that other.
From Confessio Amantis, or, Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins by Macaulay, G. C. (George Campbell)
Riff-raff.—The refuse of anything, "Il ne lui lairra rif ny raf."
From Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by Bell, George
Cotgrave in Rif, where rif is said to mean nothing.
From Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by Bell, George
Fighters form the Berber community resisted this, most notoriously in the long and bloody Rif War between 1921 and 1926, which saw the Spanish army decimated by forces led by Abdelkrim al-Khattabi.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2023
The earthquake is Morocco's deadliest since a 2004 tremor near Al Hoceima in the northern Rif mountains killed over 600 people.
From Reuters ● Sep. 9, 2023
No-one really knows exactly how old the music is that echoes through the valleys and hills surrounding the village of Joujouka, in the foothills of the Rif mountains.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2023
Rif, meanwhile, has been a hotbed of unrest, most recently mass protests that started in October 2016 after the death of a fishmonger that were only quashed eight months later.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 27, 2022
In native costume you'll see Berber and Rif, Arab and Blue Man, and occasionally a Senegalese from further south.
From I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Reynolds, Mack
That covers everybody who was subject to any aspect of the RIF process.
From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2025
"These RIF numbers from the court filing are just a snapshot in time," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2025
“Members of the RIF would not have participated” in the killing without his consent, according to the report.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 22, 2021
Send “we the people” a message with RIF notices to half.
From Washington Times ● May 15, 2020
So it makes sense when you see a crowd gather around the Free Range L.A. food truck, parked outside the RIF sneaker shop in Little Tokyo on Wednesdays.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2016
President Donald Trump riffed on his White House predecessors in a children's podcast Friday, while also joking about his weight and musing as to whether his body is swimsuit-ready.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
Bono has, for decades, riffed on this concept: “America isn’t just a country, it’s an idea.”
From Salon ● Mar. 10, 2026
During a midweek livestream, Adams had riffed off the results of a poll that asked whether people agreed with the statement “It’s OK to be white.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2026
At a crypto event in June, a video that riffed on an old movie showed Tenev speeding through the French Riviera in a convertible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
And then a sound riffed into that silence.
From "Silent To The Bone" by E.L. Konigsburg
Its members deftly updated their sound with electronics, metal riffing and industrial rock, most recently on the album “Conflict DLC.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
So no one should think this was just Sotomayor riffing off the cuff.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2026
So, of course, they kicked it off with James Austin Johnson riffing in his Donald Trump impersonation by himself.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2025
In a statement following the remarks about Dingell, the White House said that the president was "just riffing".
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2025
He was riffing about on his acoustic guitar.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
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.
