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View synonyms for rive

rive

[ rahyv ]

verb (used with object)

, rived, rived or riv·en, riv·ing.
  1. to tear or rend apart:

    to rive meat from a bone.

  2. to separate by striking; split; cleave.
  3. to rend, harrow, or distress (the feelings, heart, etc.).
  4. to split (wood) radially from a log.


verb (used without object)

, rived, rived or riv·en, riv·ing.
  1. to become rent or split apart:

    stones that rive easily.

rive

/ raɪv /

verb

  1. to split asunder

    a tree riven by lightning

  2. to tear apart

    riven to shreds

  3. archaic.
    to break (the heart) or (of the heart) to be broken


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Other Words From

  • un·rived adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of rive1

1225–75; Middle English riven < Old Norse rīfa to tear, split. See rift

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Word History and Origins

Origin of rive1

C13: from Old Norse rīfa ; related to Old Frisian rīva

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Example Sentences

The area is riven by drought — the environment’s loss, but researchers’ gain, since it helps expose the fossils.

We were riven by political divides, but over time, these may come to seem less important as we move to the other side of our collective traumas.

From Time

The fight over Dominion and its influence has riven Virginia politics in recent years.

Responsibility for their inoculation, meanwhile, will fall to a public health system maimed by budget cuts and riven by racial and other inequities.

The president, GOP senators and his advisers have been riven over what to offer in terms of immigration throughout his presidency.

I was wearing a lacy black nightgown and Rive Gauche by St. Laurent when I let him in.

The quaint methods of previous witnesses are amplified by M. de la Rive.

M. de la Rive must therefore on all counts of his evidence be ruled out of court as a witness.

I do not know of a more insidious temptation to buy what you do not need than loitering along the quais of the Rive Gauche.

Mr. Ionides says that once, on the rive gauche, they met Murger, and Whistler introduced him.

George de Rive, in alarm, convoked the magistrates of all the districts in the earldom.

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