rive

[rahyv]

See more synonyms for rive on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object), rived, rived or riv·en, riv·ing.

to tear or rend apart: to rive meat from a bone.
to separate by striking; split; cleave.
to rend, harrow, or distress (the feelings, heart, etc.).

to split (wood) radially from a log.

verb (used without object), rived, rived or riv·en, riv·ing.

to become rent or split apart: stones that rive easily.

Origin of rive

1225–75; Middle English riven < Old Norse rīfa to tear, split. See rift

Related formsun·rived, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for rive

divide, fray, rend, disintegrate, splinter, shatter, fracture, wrest, scratch, rip, impair, slit, extract, sever, frazzle, injure, damage, split, slash, crack

Examples from the Web for rive

Contemporary Examples of rive

I was wearing a lacy black nightgown and Rive Gauche by St. Laurent when I let him in.
The Summer of the Entenmann's Man
Gael Greene
July 9, 2010

Historical Examples of rive

There was a lightning in his eyes which seemed to rive the spectator.
Patrick Henry
Moses Coit Tyler
I wouldna care if ye were to rive horse and beast and a' from me now.
The Northern Iron
George A. Birmingham
And he tugged at my tail-coat like to rive it off me, your honour.
The Dew of Their Youth
S. R. Crockett
It began at its northernly end in 1855 as boulevard Sbastopol, Rive Gauche.
Historic Paris
Jetta S. Wolff
On the Rive Gauche, the walks at nightfall are more difficult to indicate.
Paris Vistas
Helen Davenport Gibbons

British Dictionary definitions for rive

rive

verb rives, riving, rived, rived or riven (ˈrɪvən) (usually passive)

to split asundera tree riven by lightning
to tear apartriven to shreds
archaic to break (the heart) or (of the heart) to be broken

Word Origin for rive

C13: from Old Norse rīfa; related to Old Frisian rīva

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 rive

"tear in pieces, strike asunder," c.1200, from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse rifa "to tear apart" (cf. Swedish rifva, Danish rive "scratch, tear"), from PIE root *rei- "to scratch, tear, cut" (see riparian).