to cut or tear apart in a rough or vigorous manner.
to rip open a seam; to rip up a sheet.
to cut or tear away in a rough or vigorous manner.
to rip bark from a tree.
to saw (wood) in the direction of the grain.
Digital Technology. to copy (audio or video files from a CD, DVD, or website) to a hard drive or mobile device, typically by extracting the raw data and changing the file format in the process.
Can you rip this CD for me?
to become torn apart or split open.
Cheap cloth rips easily.
Informal. to move with violence or great speed.
The sports car ripped along in a cloud of dust and exhaust fumes.
a rent made by ripping; tear.
Slang. a cheat, swindle, or theft; ripoff.
The average consumer doesn't realize that the new tax is a rip.
rip out to utter angrily, as with an oath or exclamation.
rip off
to steal or pilfer.
to rob or steal from.
to swindle, cheat, or exploit; take advantage of.
phony charity appeals that rip off a gullible public.
rip into to attack physically or verbally; assail.
a dissolute or worthless person.
a worthless or worn-out horse.
something of little or no value.
something or someone of little or no value
an old worn-out horse
a dissolute character; reprobate
to tear or be torn violently or roughly; split or be rent
(tr; foll by off or out) to remove hastily, carelessly, or roughly
they ripped out all the old kitchen units
informal (intr) to move violently or precipitously; rush headlong
informal to pour violent abuse (on); make a verbal attack (on)
(tr) to saw or split (wood) in the direction of the grain
informal (tr) computing to copy (music or software) without permission or making any payment
to act or speak without restraint
the place where something is torn; a tear or split
short for ripsaw
A stretch of water in a river, estuary, or tidal channel made rough by waves meeting an opposing current.
A rip current.
See tear 2.
First recorded in 1400–50; 1960–65 rip 1 for def. 10; Middle English rippen “to tear out (seams, sutures), rip, rip off”; further origin uncertain; obscurely akin to Frisian rippe, Middle Dutch rippen, reppen; compare dialectal English ripple “to scratch”
First recorded in 1765–75; see origin at rip 1, ripple 1
First recorded in 1770–80; of uncertain origin; possibly alteration of rep, shortened form of reprobate
From Latin requiēscat (or requiēscant ) in pāce
When you rip something, you tear it quickly or forcefully. It's almost always better to rip off a Band-Aid than to peel it off slowly. You can rip a piece of paper in half, or rip a hole in the roof of your tent. When you tear, split, or pull something apart, you rip it. You can also rip figuratively — like when your move to a new city rips you apart from your best friend. A rip off is a bad deal or a swindle, a phrase that's been popular since about 1970, although rip meaning "steal" was used as prison slang much earlier.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As the night wore on and the energy in the stands flatlined, they piled into an empty section in the upper reaches of the right field seats with plans to rip off their shirts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Even if the weather is good, you need to look out for rip currents if you're swimming in the sea, Hall says.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
A rip current can quickly pull you away from shore, he says, "and it doesn't need to pull you very far, it just needs to pull you out of your depth".
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
Not only were the streets brimming with international flavor, the shuttle system to Soldier Field was so efficient that cabbies complained about not getting enough chances to rip people off.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 1994
I almost rip away from him, but I see the look on his face.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
PopUp’s trademarked motto is “Grip, Rip, and Dip.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser will reprise their respective roles as Dutton’s volcanic daughter Beth Dutton and her husband, boss ranch hand Rip Wheeler, in Paramount+’s “Dutton Ranch.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2026
A Rip Van Winkle who slept through the last half-century and awoke on Monday, Oct.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2025
Rip up your 2025 diary and take the pages from the first six months and burn them in your fireplace.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 10, 2025
According to the tale told by Washington Irving, when Rip Van Winkle awoke and returned to his village, twenty years had passed, and many things had changed.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
RIP, Sam Neill: The New Zealand actor died unexpectedly today at 78.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
Following the verdict, Mieraili said: "RIP Thailand's justice system. I don't accept any of this. I didn't do anything wrong."
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
She wrote: "My Sweet Nicky, thank you for years of laughter, love and Dodgers. I will think of you every time I see a rocking chair. I love you. RIP."
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2026
“I’m all the way in Florida and have never been anywhere near SoCal and even I know how legendary that venue is. RIP to a real one,” lamented another.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
Downtown Clover started at a boarded-up gas station with RIP spray-painted across its front, and ended at an empty lot that once held the depot where Henrietta caught her train to Baltimore.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
If so, there could be no one around to put an R.I.P. on humanity’s gravestone.
From Salon ● Feb. 24, 2024
Among the drawings is a sidewalk memorial showing the image of a Black boy on a poster marked R.I.P. attached to an iron fence and surrounded by flowers.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 15, 2022
“Sir Sidney Poitier R.I.P. He showed us how to reach for the stars.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2022
The band also paid tribute to late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, with Taylor Hawkins' kick drum inscribed with the message "Charlie R.I.P."
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2021
You’d nod and then ask the person on what wall she wanted the R.I.P. and what to paint on it.
From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez
“It rips out Prop. 103’s good‑driver protections and replaces your actual driving record with a black‑box score built on sweeping data collection,’’ Balber said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Long a lethal baseliner—no one rips it better—he’s added angles, texture and touch to make his game less predictable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
The episode’s signature moment comes in a soliloquy from Gen Z hero Ava Daniels, in which she rips into the idea that A.I. is inevitable and talks about how we can and should fight it.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2026
"It rips any sense of future that you may feel that you had planned for yourself - all that goes."
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
He rips away from me but sits back down, huddling his knees to his chest.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
The first fire ripped through the Art School building on 23 May 2014.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Sony said Udio ripped off music recordings from YouTube without Sony’s permission to train AI models.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
On Thursday’s opening mountain stage, a frisky Pogacar ripped away from an elite selection of contenders and put more than 2 ½ minutes into his nearest rival.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which hit in mid-April, knocked out power for tens of thousands of people, uprooted trees, overturned cars and ripped metal roofs off buildings.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
He ripped it out, balled it up, then dropped it into the sludge of my ice cream bowl.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Views of just one of the wildfires ripping across Ontario, Canada yesterday.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
The company is just one example of the many housing stocks that have been ripping higher over the past month.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
All from ripping off Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
A kooky hailstorm in late May, a heat wave in June, followed by ruthlessly ripping winds, delayed the opening by days.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026
Sometimes, Benny jumps right in and starts ripping open trash bags.
From "Free Lunch" by Rex Ogle
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.
