rip

/rɪp/

/rɪp/

Other forms: ripped; ripping; rips

When you rip something, you tear it quickly or forcefully. It's almost always better to rip off a Band-Aid than to peel it off slowly.

You can rip a piece of paper in half, or rip a hole in the roof of your tent. When you tear, split, or pull something apart, you rip it. You can also rip figuratively — like when your move to a new city rips you apart from your best friend. A rip off is a bad deal or a swindle, a phrase that's been popular since about 1970, although rip meaning "steal" was used as prison slang much earlier.

Definitions of rip

1. verb

   tear or be torn violently
   “The curtain ripped from top to bottom”

   synonyms: pull, rend, rent, rive

   type of:

   bust, rupture, snap, tear

   separate or cause to separate abruptly
2. verb

   cut (wood) along the grain
   type of:

   cut

   separate with or as if with an instrument
3. verb

   move precipitously or violently
   “The tornado ripped along the coast”

   type of:

   buck, charge, shoot, shoot down, tear

   move quickly and violently
4. verb

   criticize or abuse strongly and violently
   “The candidate ripped into his opponent mercilessly”

   type of:

   assail, assault, attack, lash out, round, snipe

   attack in speech or writing
5. noun

   an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart
   “there was a rip in his pants”

   synonyms: rent, snag, split, tear

   type of:

   gap, opening

   an open or empty space in or between things
6. noun

   the act of rending or ripping or splitting something
   “he gave the envelope a vigorous rip”

   synonyms: rent, split

   type of:

   tear

   the act of tearing
7. noun

   a stretch of turbulent water in a river or the sea caused by one current flowing into or across another current
   synonyms: countercurrent, crosscurrent, riptide, tide rip

   type of:

   turbulence, turbulency

   unstable flow of a liquid or gas
8. noun

   a dissolute man in fashionable society
   synonyms: blood, profligate, rake, rakehell, roue

   type of:

   debauchee, libertine, rounder

   a dissolute person; usually a man who is morally unrestrained