ripper
[rip-er]
- a person or thing that rips.
- 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.
- a double-ripper.
- a killer who dispatches and often mutilates victims with a knife or similar weapon.
- Mining. a hooklike tool, attached to earth-moving machinery, for tearing away ore, rock, etc.
- Chiefly British Slang. something especially strong, fine, or good of its kind.
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Origin of ripper
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ripper
Contemporary Examples
This makes the guide to the Jack the Ripper Walk seem rather dated.
Of course, you could protest that Sherlock did not really exist and the Ripper did.
Later heads of Scotland Yard admitted that the Ripper should have been caught.
LONDON — If Sherlock Holmes was such a smart detective, why was he not put on the case of Jack the Ripper?
Did the Ripper quit because he feared that he was close to being caught?
Historical Examples
Bob Pillin saw her white round throat, and thought: 'She is a ripper!'
Five TalesJohn Galsworthy
Is it so lovely really, that Aunt Dodo has settled to marry the Ripper?
Dodo's DaughterE. F. Benson
"Jack Chesterford, because he is such a ripper," said Nadine.
Dodo's DaughterE. F. Benson
In the parlance of the Lieutenant, the old horse was indeed "a ripper."
Wanderings in IndiaJohn Lang
Its a ripper, the gramophone, I mean, like some other people I am thinking of!
The Celebrity at HomeViolet Hunt
ripper
- a person who rips
- a murderer who dissects or mutilates his victims' bodies
- informal, mainly Australian and NZ a fine or excellent person or thing
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for ripper
n.
1610s, agent noun from rip (v.). Meaning "killer who mutilates his victims" (1890) is from Jack the Ripper, notorious London murderer, whose nickname contains a pun on ripper in sense of "tool for ripping" old slates, etc. (1823) and the slang meaning "excellent person or thing, a 'ripping' fellow" (1838), from ripping "excellent, splendid."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper