river
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: River
Etymology 1
From Middle English ryver, from Anglo-Norman rivere, from Early Medieval Latin rīpāria (“littoral, riverbank”), from Latin rīpārius (“of a riverbank”), from Latin rīpa (“river bank”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to scratch, tear, cut”). Unrelated to Latin rīvus (“stream”) (whence rival, derive). Doublet of riviera and rivière. Displaced native Old English ēa.
Pronunciation
Noun
river (plural rivers)
- A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, oftentimes ending in another body of water, such as an ocean or in an inland sea.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:river
- Occasionally rivers overflow their banks and cause floods.
- 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
- By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
- 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
- Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
- Any large flow of a liquid in a single body.
- a river of blood
- (poker) The last card dealt in a hand.
- 2017, Nathan Schwiethale, Ace High: Mastering Low Stakes Poker Cash Games, page 70:
- He called instantly but was too ashamed to show until the river.
- (typography) A visually undesirable effect of white space running down a page, caused by spaces between words on consecutive lines happening to coincide.
Usage notes
- As with the names of lakes and mountains, the names of rivers are typically formed by adding the word before or after the unique term: the River Thames or the Yangtze River. Generally speaking, names formed using adjectives or attributives see river added to the end, as with the Yellow River. It is less common to add river before names than it is with lakes, but many of the rivers of Britain are written that way, as with the River Severn; indeed, British English tends to use "River X" in such cases while American, South African, Australian and New Zealand English use "X River". The former derives from the earlier but now uncommon form river of ~: the 19th century River of Jordan is now usually simply the River Jordan.
- It is common to preface the proper names of rivers with the article the.
- Concerning the reference of its coordinate terms, some people say:[1] you can step over a brook, jump over a creek, wade across a stream, and swim across a river.
Derived terms
- Apple River
- Arm River
- atmospheric river
- Bear River
- Blue River
- braided river
- Chinese river dolphin
- Crimea river
- cross-river
- cross the river
- cry someone a river
- Crystal River
- Deep River
- denial is not a river in Egypt
- Detroit River
- downriver
- Eagle River
- Elk River
- European river lamprey
- Fall River
- French River
- from the river to the sea
- Fryingpan River
- Garden River
- Gila River
- Green River
- Gunnison River
- Hay River
- heritage river
- Hood River
- Huai river
- Hutt River
- Indian River
- inverted river delta
- Japanese river fever
- Kansas River
- Klip River
- lazy river
- Lister's river snail
- Little Colorado River
- Little River
- lost river
- Lost River sucker
- Mad River
- Maurice River
- Middle River
- midriver
- Mississippi River
- Mooi River
- Moose River
- Mora River
- multiriver
- myrtle of the river
- Northern Rivers
- over the river
- over the river and through the woods
- palaeoriver
- paleoriver
- pass the river
- Peace River
- Pearl River
- pink river dolphin
- Powder River
- Puerco River
- red river hog
- riverage
- riverbank
- river basin
- riverbed
- riverbend
- river birch
- river blindness
- riverboard
- riverboarder
- riverboarding
- riverboat
- river bottom
- river boulder
- river bug
- river bugging
- river-bush
- rivercane
- river carp
- river chicken
- river chub
- river crab
- rivercraft
- Riverdale
- riverdamsel
- riverdance
- river dog
- river dolphin
- River Don
- river-dragon
- river duck (Anatinae)
- river dune
- riveret
- riverfront
- riverful
- river god
- rivergoing
- river gum
- Riverhead
- riverhemp
- river hog (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)
- riverhood
- river horse
- riverine
- riverish
- river jack
- riverkeeper
- river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis)
- riverless
- riverlet
- riverlike
- river limpet (Ancylus fluviatilis)
- riverling
- riverman
- river mouth
- river mussel (Unionidae)
- river oats
- river otter
- riverpark
- river pear (Grias cauliflora)
- riverplain
- river poison
- riverport
- river prawn (Macrobrachium spp.)
- river pumpkin
- river rat
- river red gum
- river run
- river runner
- river running
- riverscape
- river shad (Alosa chrysochloris, Gudusia spp.)
- river shark
- riverside
- river snail (Viviparidae)
- river swallow
- river turtle
- riverwalk
- river walk
- river warbler
- riverward
- riverwards
- riverwater
- river water
- riverway
- riverweed
- riverwise
- riverwoman
- riverworthy
- rivery
- Roaring Fork River
- run-of-the-river
- Rush River
- Russian River
- Sables-Spanish Rivers
- Saint Lawrence River
- salmon river, Salmon River
- Salt River
- sell down the river
- Sendai River
- Smoky River
- St. Johns River
- submarine river
- Swan River
- Three Rivers
- tidal river
- Touws River
- Two Hearted River
- Two Rivers
- upriver
- up the river
- White River
- wild river
- Yampa River
- Yellow river
- Yellow River
- you can't step in the same river twice
- youthful river
- Zuni River
Descendants
Translations
See also
- fluvial
- tributary (noun)
- Category:Rivers
Verb
river (third-person singular simple present rivers, present participle rivering, simple past and past participle rivered)
- (poker) To improve one’s hand to beat another player on the final card in a poker game.
- Johnny rivered me by drawing that ace of spades.
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɹaɪvə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɹaɪvɚ/
- Rhymes: -aɪvə(ɹ)
Noun
river (plural rivers)
References
- Definitions of rivers, stream, brooks, creeks and other terms (Goran Šafarek, WorldRivers.net, November 29, 2018)
Further reading
river on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - “river”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
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