riffle Hear it!

riffle Definition

rif·fle (rifəl)

noun

    1. a shoal, reef, or shallow in a stream, producing a stretch of ruffled or choppy water
    2. a stretch of such water
    3. a ripple or the ripples of such water
    1. a contrivance, as of bars or slats, put across the bottom of a sluice to form grooves or open spaces for catching and holding particles of gold in mining
    2. any of the bars, slats, etc.
    3. any of the grooves or spaces
  1. the act or a manner of riffling cards

Etymology: < ? or akin to Ger riffel, groove, furrow < EFris, akin to OE rifelung, wrinkle < IE base *rei-, to tear > reap

transitive verb, intransitive verb -·fled, -·fling

  1. to form, become, or flow over or through, a riffle
  2. to leaf rapidly through (a book, etc.), as by letting the edges or corners of the pages slip lightly across the thumb
  3. to shuffle (playing cards) by holding part of the deck in each hand, raising the corners or edges slightly, and causing the cards to fall alternately together

Etymology: < ? Ger riffeln, to form riffles, groove: see rifflethe

riffle Usage Examples

Preposition: for

fish: These help to create pools and riffles for fish to spawn.

Adjective modifier

  • shallow: And secondly there are the shallow riffles, which are easy to fish but rarely hold anything worth catching.
  • little: I cast up a tiny little riffle and kept just going a little too far to the left.

Modifies a noun

  • shuffle: The Zarrow Shuffle is the ultimate false riffle shuffle.
  • section: At stream sites, five replicated one minute kick sample units will be collected from riffle sections.

Modifying Another Word

then: You then riffle through them until they say STOP Show the card they stopped at.

Noun used with modifier

  • sniper: The man in the apartment sticks a sniper riffle out the window and aims it at the phonebooth.
  • gravel: Even when the mornings are still frosty in early March, dace will be found massing in the deeper water before shallow gravel riffles.

Browse dictionary entries near riffle

  1. riff
  2. rife
  3. rifampin
  4. rif
  5. Riesling
  6. Rienzi
  7. Riemannian geometry
  8. riel
  9. ridotto
  10. ridley
  1. riffraff
  2. rifle
  3. rifle range
  4. rifleman
  5. riflery
  6. rifling
  7. rift
  8. Rift Valley
  9. rig
  10. Rig-Veda