ripper

[ rip-er ]
See synonyms for ripper on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person or thing that rips.

  2. Also ripper bill, ripper act . a legislative bill or act for taking powers of appointment to and removal from office away from the usual holders of these powers and conferring them unrestrictedly on a chief executive, as a governor or mayor, or on a board of officials.

  1. a double-ripper.

  2. a killer who dispatches and often mutilates victims with a knife or similar weapon.

  3. Mining. a hooklike tool, attached to earth-moving machinery, for tearing away ore, rock, etc.

  4. Chiefly British Slang. something especially strong, fine, or good of its kind.

Origin of ripper

1
First recorded in 1605–15; rip1 + -er1

Words Nearby ripper

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use ripper in a sentence

  • Old ripper, a talkative, discontented man, stopped and ventured to enter on his grievances.

    Elster's Folly | Mrs. Henry Wood
  • Mr. ripper's opinion was that he had lost his senses with the blow on the temple, and fell an easy prey to death.

    Elster's Folly | Mrs. Henry Wood
  • Mr. ripper's logic tended to the belief that he could not be punished if he stuck to the avowal of having seen nothing.

    Elster's Folly | Mrs. Henry Wood
  • Such cases as that of Jack the ripper, for instance, are undoubtedly due to a special tendency to take life.

  • But as the policemen closed in around me there was a cry raised, "It is Jack the ripper in disguise."

    Prisons and Prayer: Or a Labor of Love | Elizabeth Ryder Wheaton

British Dictionary definitions for ripper

ripper

/ (ˈrɪpə) /


noun
  1. a person who rips

  2. a murderer who dissects or mutilates his victims' bodies

  1. informal, mainly Australian and NZ a fine or excellent person or thing

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