riven
[riv-uh n]
- a past participle of rive.
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- rent or split apart.
- split radially, as a log.
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rive
[rahyv]
- 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.
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- to become rent or split apart: stones that rive easily.
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Origin of rive
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for riven
Contemporary Examples
But on the French left — riven by ideological splits from competing centuries — that job is akin to herding cats.
The field was lackluster and riven by scandal (hello, Carlos Danger).
New York City Mayoral Race Looks Wonderfully Like Democracy at Its BestMichael Daly
September 10, 2013
These things were supposed to protect Sweden from the class-and-ethnic conflict that has riven the United States, Britain, France.
And each side is riven by sharp internal divisions that make a deal difficult.
The country is riven by tribalism, regionalism and a host of armed militias who so far have refused to disarm.
Historical Examples
Dear oak-tree, you are riven by the storm-king's thunderbolt!
A Little Book of Profitable TalesEugene Field
To the fugitives it was as if the whole world had suddenly been riven asunder.
The Golden WomanRidgwell Cullum
Could I not have riven his body in sunder and strewn it on the waves?
The Aeneid of VirgilVirgil
His god appeared to be riven from him, and the revulsion in his mind was terrible.
Freaks of FortuneOliver Optic
The tower is riven, and it may be climbed along the edges of the crack.
Fragments of science, V. 1-2John Tyndall
rive
- to split asundera tree riven by lightning
- to tear apartriven to shreds
- archaic to break (the heart) or (of the heart) to be broken
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Word Origin
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 riven
adj.
"split, cloven, rent," c.1300, past participle adjective from rive "to tear, rend."
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rive
v.
"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).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper