rift en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ɹɪft/
- (US) audio
- rĭft
Etymology
From Middle English rift, of North Germanic origin; akin to Danish rift, Norwegian Bokmål rift (“breach”), Old Norse rífa (“to tear”). More at rive.
Meanings
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A chasm or fissure.
Far back in the dim geologic ages, when the sediments of the old seas were being gathered and outspread in smooth sheets like leaves of a book, and when these sediments became dry land, and were baked and crumbled into the sky as mountain ranges; when the lava-floods of the Fire Period were being lavishly poured forth from innumerable rifts and craters;[…].
1918, John Muir, Steep Trails:As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.
1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:Where ashes are heaped in drifts / Over vineyard and field and town, / Whenever he starts and lifts / His head through the blackened rifts / Of the crags that keep him down
1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Enceladus”, in Birds of Passage:The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.
-
(figuratively) A lack of cohesion; a state of conflict, incompatibility, or emotional distance.
My marriage is in trouble: the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.
Elon Musk, the billionaire tech entrepreneur, has opened a new rift with Donald Trump by denouncing the US president’s tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination”.
2025 June 3, David Smith, “Elon Musk calls Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ tax bill a ‘disgusting abomination’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
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A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
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.
1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 130:
- A shallow place in a stream; a ford.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| rifts | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
rift saw · riftless · paleorift · rift valley · rifty · palaeorift · rift zone · riftsawn
Descendants
Translations (44)
fi kuilu (chasm or fissure) · hi दरार (chasm or fissure) · ru рассе́лина (chasm or fissure) · hi फटन (chasm or fissure) · cmn 裂縫 /裂缝 (chasm or fissure) · fr éclaircie (break in the clouds, fog, mist etc.) · es fisura (chasm or fissure) · eo breĉo (chasm or fissure) · cs trhlina (chasm or fissure) · grc χάσμα (chasm or fissure) · hi विभ्रंश (chasm or fissure) · mk пукна́тина (chasm or fissure) · pt rifte (chasm or fissure) · mk ра́сцеп (chasm or fissure) · ota چاك (chasm or fissure) · fi aukko (break in the clouds, fog, mist etc.) · mk цепна́тина (chasm or fissure) · de Riss (chasm or fissure) · hi अनुपाट (chasm or fissure) · kk жарық (chasm or fissure) · fr fente (chasm or fissure) · ru просве́т (break in the clouds, fog, mist etc.) · ang cleofa (chasm or fissure) · fr percée (break in the clouds, fog, mist etc.) · cs prasklina (chasm or fissure) · fi repeämä (chasm or fissure) · fr fissure (chasm or fissure) · nl breuk (chasm or fissure) · cs puklina (chasm or fissure) · da rift (chasm or fissure) · es cisma (chasm or fissure) · kk сызат (chasm or fissure) · fi halkeama (chasm or fissure) · mi tawhā (chasm or fissure) · no rift (chasm or fissure) · bg цепнатина (chasm or fissure) · sk trhlina (chasm or fissure) · yue 罅 (chasm or fissure) · ru тре́щина (chasm or fissure) · fi valopilkku (break in the clouds, fog, mist etc.) · ota آرالق (chasm or fissure) · eo fendo (chasm or fissure) · cs trhlina (break in the clouds, fog, mist etc.) · ru разры́в (chasm or fissure)