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.
He said he "didn't destroy, rip, tear, peel, or remove any part" of the paint and described his arrest as "arbitrary, capricious prosecution".
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
They arrived with rescue dogs, sophisticated listening devices and cutting tools that can rip through concrete.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Rockaway is prone to strong rip currents, and “some days we would have to do dozens of rescues,” she writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 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
I felt it now, all inside of me, as if just saying my name out loud had unleashed a force and it was wrapping around the tangles, ready to rip them apart.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Irving’s whimsically inventive “Sketch Book” of stories introduced Rip Van Winkle, the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow and other timelessly folkloric figures to an eager readership.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James are just some of the names who feature in Nike's Rip the script World Cup advert.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 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
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
The protesters, gathered to support Diarra's family, members of whom also took part, unfurled banners reading "Justice" and "RIP", before marching to the local police station.
From Barron's ● Jan. 25, 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
“All those R.I.P. emails or tweets and Instagram posts and TikToks, all of the things we see after somebody passes are so sweet,” he added.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026
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
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
“On the wall of P.S. 101’s schoolyard. The back wall. The one that faces 111th Street. Freddy would hang there all night. I want it to say, ‘Freddy the best of 109th Street, R.I.P.’
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
"It rips your soul out," he told Reuters news agency.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
As a once-in-a-century storm rips the place apart, Tom’s conversion may have arrived too late for the town, its visitors and his family.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026
Today she rips her garden gloves from her hands, whips them at the kitchen island, and screams like she can’t stand the very sight of them.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
The blaze ripped through the property in the southern La Victoria district early on Wednesday, Gen Oscar Arriola from the Peruvian National Police told local media.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
About 17 million gallons of water ripped through parked cars and flooded apartment complexes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
Burns punched the air as a rapturous roar - which ripped across the course - reverberated in his ears.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Some wondered whether he had forgotten he had a concert to conduct or had ripped his trousers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
I ripped it to bits and rolled around in its stuffing.
From "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat" by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
Views of just one of the wildfires ripping across Ontario, Canada yesterday.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
Now he anticipates removing drywall and ripping out the floors entirely.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
It’s unclear why, and it doesn’t really do any favors to the show, which is more of a slow-burn psychological drama than a ripping action show that’s easy to binge through.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
It is a savvy move and coalition-building exercise that likely will quash accusations Warsh is ripping apart the very fabric of the Fed.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
Fadi skidded around the corner, ripping the head off a paper turkey in his haste.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
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.
