I. ˈrivə(r) noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English rivere, river, from Old French rivere, riviere riverbank, land along a river, river, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin riparia, from Latin, feminine of riparius riparian, from ripa bank, shore + -arius -ary — more at rive
1.
a. : a natural surface stream of water of considerable volume and permanent or seasonal flow
river channel
river gravel
river engineer
— compare brook , creek
b. : watercourse
dry river
underground river
c. : estuary , tidal river
York River, Va.
Neponset River, Mass.
also : inlet , strait
East River, N.Y.
Sakonnet River, R.I.
Indian River, Fla.
2.
a. : something resembling a river
river of ice
river of air
rivers of lava glow an angry red — Read Magazine
the enormous oceanic river of the Gulf Stream — Marjory S. Douglas
costumes … made a rippling, many-colored river of the street — H.A.Sinclair
the never-failing river of student life — J.B.Conant
b. rivers plural : copious flow : large or overwhelming quantities : outpouring
rivers of birds pouring against the sunset back to the rookeries — Marjory S. Douglas
rain, pouring down through the blackness in solid rivers — C.S.Forester
rivers of print that gushed forth about her — Mollie Panter-Downes
drank rivers of coffee
3. : a pure-white diamond of very high grade occasionally with a prismatic blue radiance
4. : a white typically irregular streak or area running through several lines of close-set printed matter and caused by a series of wide spaces that appear to form a continuous line — called also channel, gutter, staircase
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- down the river
- up the river
II. ˈrīvə(r) noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, one that rives, from riven to rive + -er — more at rive
: one that rives ; specifically : a worker who splits blocks of wood with a froe to make pickets, posts, or rails