Rip

How to spell rip

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce rip

What does rip mean?

1. verbTo tear or pull something apart quickly and forcefully.
2. nounA torn or split place in cloth, paper, or another material.

Rip in a sentence

• verb

  Please do not rip the envelope before checking the address.

• noun

  There was a small rip in the knee of his work trousers.

• verb

  Careless movers can rip a sofa cover on the door frame.

• noun

  The tailor mended the rip along the seam of the jacket.

Where does rip come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The origin of rip is not entirely settled, which is unusual for so plain a word. It first appears in English around the middle of the 1400s with the sense of tearing something open quickly and roughly. The most likely source is a Low German or Flemish relative such as rippen, meaning 'to pull or strip off roughly', and it has cousins in Frisian rippe and Dutch rippen. The word stayed short and blunt because it imitates the sudden action it names; that economy is also why the spelling never gathered any silent letters or doubled consonants. From the physical act of tearing cloth or paper, rip later spread into slang senses such as moving very fast and, in the noun, a violent stretch of seaward current.

How the word is built

• rip (single root; no prefix or suffix)