ripper
Americannoun
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rippers
plural
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a person or thing that rips.
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Also ripper bill, ripper act a legislative bill or act for taking powers of appointment to and removal from office away from the usual holders of these powers and conferring them unrestrictedly on a chief executive, as a governor or mayor, or on a board of officials.
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a double-ripper.
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a killer who dispatches and often mutilates victims with a knife or similar weapon.
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Mining. a hooklike tool, attached to earth-moving machinery, for tearing away ore, rock, etc.
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Chiefly British Slang. something especially strong, fine, or good of its kind.
noun
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a person who rips
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a murderer who dissects or mutilates his victims' bodies
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informal a fine or excellent person or thing
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ripper
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:
“Any good news at all and there are so many out there way off sides to a ripper of a rally,” Detrick said.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 17, 2026
With the used pitch suddenly alive, Sajid had Joe Root drag on, enticed Duckett into an edge, then bowled Harry Brook with a ripper.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2024
Excellent - ripper - and apologies if you, the reader, knew all this.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 19, 2022
The objects there are built on an Alice in Wonderland scale: tomato-shaped pincushions as big as chairs, a gargantuan seam ripper in royal blue, bobbins a giant could use.
From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
He was a ripper, and I adored that.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
"You think bodice rippers, contemporary things, fantasy. It covers a broad spectrum. So it's not maybe as niche as you think initially."
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
They were accompanied by vocal virtuosos Lucius and blues-rock rippers Judith Hill and Eric Krasno, each fixtures in the local music community trying to rebuild itself in the wake of the Eaton fire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026
The 10-song set of vintage Foos anthems is their finest album in years, the stadium-ready rippers carrying a renewed sense of urgency following Hawkins’ death last year.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 2, 2023
They all blur the lines between women’s and literary-leaning commercial fiction, departing from the fantasy spaces of bodice rippers and misty moors to depict a world that looks a lot more like, well, our own.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 23, 2023
You're three rippers to do this—and I hope you'll have an easy journey.
From Carry On Letters in War-Time by Coningsby Dawson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
