riffle
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to turn hastily; flutter and shift.
to riffle a stack of letters; to riffle through a book.
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Cards. to shuffle by dividing the deck in two, raising the corners slightly, and allowing them to fall alternately together.
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to cause or become a riffle.
noun
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a rapid, as in a stream.
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a ripple, as upon the surface of water.
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Mining. the lining of transverse bars or slats on the bed of a sluice, arranged so as to catch heavy minerals, as gold or platinum.
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a hopper for distributing bulk material.
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the act or method of riffling cards.
verb
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to flick rapidly through (the pages of a book, magazine, etc), esp in a desultory manner
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to shuffle (playing cards) by halving the pack and flicking the adjacent corners together
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to make or become a riffle
noun
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a rapid in a stream
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a rocky shoal causing a rapid
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a ripple on water
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mining a contrivance on the bottom of a sluice, containing transverse grooves for trapping particles of gold
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the act or an instance of riffling
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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rifflesimple
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rifflessimple
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have riffledperfect
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has riffledperfect
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am rifflingprogressive
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are rifflingprogressive
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is rifflingprogressive
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have been rifflingperfect progressive
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has been rifflingperfect progressive
Past
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riffledsimple
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had riffledperfect
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was rifflingprogressive
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were rifflingprogressive
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had been rifflingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of riffle
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:
He makes some questionable moves himself, like allowing Vivian to riffle through the discovery documents, and the two become unlikely, close friends.
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2022
They had a name for every riffle in the river.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2021
Wyoming’s rivers would be difficult to monitor for enforcing closures because temperatures fluctuate widely throughout the day and from riffle to hole, said David Zafft, fish management coordinator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 5, 2021
“You just riffle through to find the right pack and pull it out,” says Lulu Grimes, the managing editor of BBC Good Food.
From The Guardian ● May 13, 2020
I overturn my hamper and riffle through dirty clothes and sheets, looking for the pants I wore four days ago.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
All proved extremely willing to take dry flies cast behind rocks or into seams at the edge of riffles.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 13, 2022
Natural river features such as riffles - shallower, faster moving sections of a stream - have been restored to attract white-clawed crayfish and brown trout.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2022
The singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and virtuoso whistler Andrew Bird riffles through moods and genres on his holiday album: He’s wistful, sardonic, jaunty and pensive by turns.
From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2020
Bell shuffles facial expressions the way a magician riffles cards and can switch directions three times in a single sentence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2019
He riffles the edges of his paperwork and gazes at me sadly.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
One former White House official told the Times that Trump would notice if anyone had riffled through the materials and or were not arranged in a particular way.
From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2023
They began running through a checklist as the cockpit recorder captured the sound of pages being riffled through.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 2019
At first it looks like a revelation in looseness, as if McPhee had simply riffled through his voluminous back catalog.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2018
He travelled from the Caucasus Mountains to Israel and beyond, and riffled through archives, to unearth ancient ‘founder’ grape varieties.
From Nature ● May 29, 2018
Holly riffled through the shelf of patterns, leaving me alone to think.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
I felt a little wrong riffling through them, but I was inspired to witness a collective will to live.
From Slate ● Dec. 26, 2025
Even after the Christmas rush, the aisles were packed with Asian customers riffling through racks of Ohtani jerseys and T-shirts featuring his caricature, his name stamped with Japan’s red sun symbol or the “SHO-TIME” logo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2023
In the recording, the former president is heard riffling through papers and saying: "This is highly confidential".
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2023
It is there in the park where her children played when they were young, riffling through the boughs of the palo verde trees, stalking her as she tries to live her life quietly.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 1, 2022
"Grace Wexler's maiden name is not Windsor, it's Windkloppel," the judge exclaimed, riffling through the pages of Sandy's notebook.
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
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.
