rive
Americanverb (used with object)
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to tear or rend apart.
to rive meat from a bone.
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to separate by striking; split; cleave.
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to rend, harrow, or distress (the feelings, heart, etc.).
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to split (wood) radially from a log.
verb (used without object)
verb
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to split asunder
a tree riven by lightning
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to tear apart
riven to shreds
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archaic to break (the heart) or (of the heart) to be broken
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rive
1225–75; Middle English riven < Old Norse rīfa to tear, split. See rift
Vocabulary lists containing rive
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:
Though she did not hang out with the bohemians and intellectuals of the rive gauche, there was nevertheless something about her persona that chimed with the romantic existentialism of the time.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 29, 2018
You never put your foot in the same rive twice.
From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2017
“Per le spiagge, per le rive di Trieste,” he began, singing the opening lines of “The Bells of Saint Giusto,” a patriotic World War I paean to Italy’s victory against—and Trieste’s independence from—Austria-Hungary.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 3, 2015
His Roxbury studio resembled a tinker's shop more than some rive gauche atelier; wire and pliers and corrugated cartons filled with the flotsam of a lifetime lay about in splendid I-know-just-where-it-is disarray.
From Time Magazine Archive
A storm stooped on the place of tombs With bolts to blast and rive; But these be names of many men The lightning found alive.
From The Ballad of St. Barbara And Other Verses by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
And the Sacramento Kings — well, at least the Kings are still the Kings, reportedly rived by front-office drama.
From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2018
The red, dusty landscape that surrounds his house and studio is rived by a dry creek bed.
From New York Times ● Oct. 15, 2018
The battle that Gil cannot leave behind is the war that rived his nation.
From Washington Post ● May 11, 2018
In a country rived by tribal rivalries, Kenyatta, 55, has the support of many Kikuyus and Kalenjins, while Odinga, 72, is strong among the Luos, Luhyas and Kambas.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 7, 2017
I counted the days while St Mark's Day, and tewed and rived and better rived to keep him out o' his coffin.
From More Tales of the Ridings by Frederic William Moorman
Rumoured to be descended from Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu was born in the central city of Changsha in 1928 into a China riven by civil war.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
“I actually have some thoughts,” she said when asked by a reporter how she felt about representing the U.S. at a time when the country is riven by deep political divides.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2026
Long before Nancy's arrival, the club was riven with disharmony.
From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2025
Small towns were riven between people calling themselves Patriots and British Loyalists.
From Salon ● Nov. 15, 2025
Descending the laurel walk, I faced the wreck of the chestnut-tree; it stood up black and riven: the trunk, split down the centre, gasped ghastly.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
However, the game turned on its head in dramatic fashion when Charteris was sent to the sin-bin for stopping a riving maul illegally.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2014
Craig DuMez Brookfield, Wis. As an American riving in Brazil, I felt great pride as I listened to Mondale's concession speech.
From Time Magazine Archive
Their two daughters are riving on the West Coast, and their son David, 18, is attending Auburn University in Alabama.
From Time Magazine Archive
Also in the interior were 100 Russian trucks, and Soviet "technicians" were ar riving almost daily from the north.
From Time Magazine Archive
Starting in fall 1793, British troops began ar- riving in Saint Domingue to reenslave people and return them to their sugar plantations.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
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.
