river

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English ryver, river, rivere, from Anglo-Norman rivere, from Old French riviere, from Vulgar Latin *rīpāria (“riverbank, seashore, river”), 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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪvə/
• (General American) enPR: rĭv'ər, IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪvɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪvə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: riv‧er

Noun

river (plural rivers)

1. 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.

2. Any large flow of a liquid in a single body.

   a river of blood

4. (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.

5. (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: you can step over a brook, jump over a creek, wade across a stream, and swim across a river.

Derived terms

• English terms starting with “river”

Related terms

• tributary (noun)

Descendants

• → Finnish: river (“river (in poker)”)
• Sranan Tongo: liba

Translations

See also

• fluvial
• Category:Rivers

Verb

river (third-person singular simple present rivers, present participle rivering, simple past and past participle rivered)

1. (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

rive +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪvə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪvɚ/
• Rhymes: -aɪvə(ɹ)

Noun

river (plural rivers)

1. One who rives or splits.

References

Further reading

• “river”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Danish

Noun

river c

1. indefinite plural of rive

Verb

river

1. present of rive

Finnish

Etymology

< English river

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈriʋer/,
• Rhymes: -iʋer
• Syllabification^(key): ri‧ver

Noun

river

1. (poker) river (fifth communal card in Texas hold'em)

Declension

Synonyms

• viides avokortti, viimeinen avokortti

See also

• joki (“river”)

French

Etymology

From a Germanic source (compare Danish rive).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁi.ve/

Verb

river

1. to drive/set a rivet

Conjugation

Related terms

• rive

Further reading

• “river”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• virer

Latin

Verb

rīver

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of rīvō

Middle English

Noun

river

1. Alternative form of ryver

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

river m or f

1. indefinite plural of rive

Verb

river

1. present of rive

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

river f

1. indefinite plural of rive

Verb

river

1. (non-standard since 2012) present of riva

Swedish

Verb

river

1. present indicative of riva

Anagrams

• revir, virre