riffle
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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riffles,
present (3rd person singular)
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riffled,
past participle, past
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riffling
present participle
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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
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
It’s not a nostalgic riffle through old lecture notes.
From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2018
Climbing down out of the tree, I picked up my ax and lantern, and trotted down to another riffle and waded across.
From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls
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
Home Creek riffles through the canyon and underfoot.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 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
He riffles the edges of his paperwork and gazes at me sadly.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
"Mr. Trump would notice if somebody had riffled through them or they were not arranged in a particular way," the New York Times reporters wrote.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2023
When fresh copies arrived, we riffled the pages to see whether certain changes had been made.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 11, 2022
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
Merriman had been researching the African-American Muslim diaspora, and she riffled through her notes.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 30, 2018
He riffled through the stacks of paper and pulled out a folded-up section.
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
An algorithm can now perform in seconds what would once have required weeks of officers riffling through papers and records.
From Slate ● May 20, 2026
Will film and television never tire of riffling through the bones of dead Kennedys?
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
The songs often morph through multiple changes of tempo and texture, riffling unpredictably through indie-rock austerity, orchestral lushness, pop perkiness and hallucinatory electronic studio concoctions, like the cascade of wavery, overlapping piano lines in “Connect.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 20, 2024
In the recording, the former president is heard riffling through papers and saying: "This is highly confidential".
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2023
Harry saw Malfoy riffling feverishly through his copy of Advanced Potion-Making.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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.
