Rift

English

Noun

Rift (plural Rifts)

1. A chasm or fissure.

   My marriage is in trouble, the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.

   The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.

2. A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, p. 130:

     I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.

Verb

Rift (third-person singular simple present Rifts, present participle Rifting, simple past and past participle Rifted)

1. To form a rift.

Verb

Rift (third-person singular simple present Rifts, present participle Rifting, simple past and past participle Rifted)

1. (obsolete except Scotland and northern UK) To belch.

Verbs for Rift

fill—; lament—; span—; —appears; — breaches; —brews; —disjoins; —disunites;gapes —heals; —overhangs; —rends; —' rips; —ruptures; —separates; —splits; — widens.

Thesaurus

abysm, abyss, alienation, arroyo, birthmark, blackhead, bleb, blemish, blister, box canyon, breach, breach of friendship, break, breakage, broach, bug, bulla, burst, canyon, catch, cavity, chap, chasm, check, chimney, chink, chinky, chip, cicatrix, cleavage, cleave, cleft, cleuch, clough, cloven, col, comedo, conflict, coulee, couloir, crack, cracked, cranny, crater, craze, crevasse, crevice, cut, cut open, cwm, defacement, defect, defection, deficiency, defile, deformation, deformity, dehiscent, dell, difference, dike, disaffection, disagreement, disfavor, disfiguration, disfigurement, dispart, disruption, distance, distortion, disunion, disunity, ditch, divaricate, divergence, divide, dividedness, division, donga, draw, drawback, estrangement, excavation, failing, failure, falling-out, fault, faute, fissure, fissured, fissury, flaw, flume, fly open, foible, fracture, frailty, freckle, furrow, gap, gape, gaping, gappy, gash, gorge, groove, gulch, gulf, gully, hemangioma, hiatus, hickey, hole, imperfection, inadequacy, incise, incision, infirmity, interruption, interval, joint, keloid, kink, kloof, lay open, leak, lentigo, little problem, milium, moat, mole, needle scar, nevus, notch, nullah, ope, open, open rupture, open up, opening, part, pass, passage, pimple, pit, pock, pockmark, port-wine mark, port-wine stain, problem, pustule, ravine, recall of ambassadors, rent, rime, rimose, rimulose, rip, rive, rupture, scab, scale, scar, schism, scissure, scratch, seam, sebaceous cyst, separate, separation, shortcoming, slash, slice, slit, slot, snag, something missing, splinter, split, spread, spread out, spring open, strawberry mark, sty, swing open, taint, tap, tear, tear open, throw open, track, trench, twist, valley, verruca, vesicle, void, vulnerable place, wadi, wale, warp, wart, weak link, weak point, weakness, weal, welt, wen, whitehead

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rɪft/
• Rhymes: -ɪft

Etymology 1

Middle English, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish/Norwegian rift 'breach', Old Norse rífa 'to tear'. More at rive.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse rypta.

Translations

Noun

• Finnish: rako, halkeama, repeämä

Anagrams

• firſt
• frit
• FTIR

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Scots

Verb

tae Rift (third-person singular simple present Rifts, present participle riftin, simple past riftit, past participle riftit)

1. to belch, burp

Etymology

From Old Norse rypta.