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| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
before 900; Middle English; Old English ryge; cognate with Old Norse rūgr; akin to Dutch rogge, German Roggen
- Rye whiskey is the world's great forgotten spirit, distinctive, complex and delicious.
- The current process for manufacturing it is a rather messy one involving ergot, a parasite of rye.
- Rye infected with ergot, a toxic fungus, has caused devastating epidemics through history.
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| rye1 (raɪ) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | See also wild rye a tall hardy widely cultivated annual grass, Secale cereale, having soft bluish-green leaves, bristly flower spikes, and light brown grain |
| 2. | the grain of this grass, used in making flour and whiskey, and as a livestock food |
| 3. | Also called: rye whiskey whiskey distilled from rye. US whiskey must by law contain not less than 51 per cent rye |
| 4. | (US) short for rye bread |
| [Old English ryge; related to Old Norse rugr, Old French rogga, Old Saxon roggo] | |
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rye
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Rye definition
=Rie, (Heb. kussemeth), found in Ex. 9:32; Isa. 28:25, in all of which the margins of the Authorized and of the Revised Versions have "spelt." This Hebrew word also occurs in Ezek. 4:9, where the Authorized Version has "fitches' (q.v.) and the Revised Version "spelt." This, there can be no doubt, was the Triticum spelta, a species of hard, rough-grained wheat.
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Rye
town (parish), Rother district, administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, on a hill by the River Rother. The community's cobbled streets and timber-framed and Georgian houses attract many tourists. Originally a seaport, Rye was incorporated in 1289 and became a full member of the Cinque Ports (a confederation of English Channel ports) in about 1350. Edward III walled the town, but of the three original 14th-century entrance gates, only Land Gate remains, together with the earlier Ypres Tower (12th century). Buildings of special interest include the Mermaid Inn (1420) and the 18th-century house in which the novelist Henry James spent his later years. From the 15th century the port declined as silting proceeded (the sea is now 2 miles [3 km] away), and the town has grown little outside its medieval perimeter. Pop. (2001) 4,009.
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