rip n.1
1. in senses of inferiority, worthlessness.
(a) an exhausted, worn-out horse.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Thraliana i 10 Jan. 477: Rips a common Term of Disgrace; sad Rips we say of bad Horses, paltry Fellows—or anything that's worthless. | |
 | Indep. Journal 21 July 2: [advert for a mile race at Greenwich] Also several heats and competitions of Hacks, Rips, Scrubs and Carters. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Life in Paris 108: Galloping galloways, / Rat-tailed dreary rips! | |
| ‘Sandman Joe’ in Lummy Chaunter 81: The other day, as Sandman Joe, / Up Holborn Hill was dragging / His lousy rips, they scarce cou’d go, / Yet still the dog kept flogging. | |
| Handley Cross (1854) 113: ‘What ’osses does he keep?’ [...] ‘Oh, precious rips, I assure you’. | |
| Young Tom Hall (1926) 198: That depends upon [...] what sot of horses you ride. If you ride rips, you are pretty sure to come to grief. | |
| Londres et les Anglais 317/2: rip vieux cheval exténué. | |
| Warwickshire Word-Book 192: Rip. [...] as applied to a horse, a worthless ‘screw’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 200: rip, [...] a screw of a horse. ‘You old rip! I’ll whip you until you know enough to stand still.’. |
(b) a worthless person, a rake; usu. used of a (young) man, (Irish) occas. of a woman [Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. (1895) suggests ‘a corruption of reprobate’].
| Thraliana i 10 Jan. 477: Rips a common Term of Disgrace; sad Rips we say of bad Horses, paltry Fellows—or anything that's worthless. | |
| Sporting Mag. Aug. IV 288/2: Where low devils, and rich dons, and high rips may be found. | |
| Military Adventures of Johnny Newcome I 9: Nor ask a favour of this savage rip. | |
| Comfortable Lodgings I ii: So, at last at Paris; and I’ll be bound I’m the greatest rip in it. | |
| ‘The Stage-Coachman Abroad’ Bentley’s Misc. IV 607: Frenchmen is generally nothin’ but skinny rips. | |
| Leeds Times 22 June 6/2: Terror of evil-doers — of rips, rapscallions. | |
| Portage Sentinel (Ravenna, OH) 7 Jan. 1/2: ‘Consarn the rip,’ says I. | |
| Bleak House (1991) 752: If it’s ever broke to him that his Rip of a brother has turned up, I could wish [...] to break it myself. | |
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 22 Nov. n.p.: Mary K [...] Shame on you, you two-faced rip. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor II 43/1: I’ve been robbed before, and I’ve caught young rips in the act. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Hills & Plains I 278: ‘[Y]oung rip, impudent enough for anything’. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. 214: RIP, a rake, ‘an old rip,’ an old libertine or debauchee. |
| Leics. Chron. 6 Mar. 5/2: ‘He’s a rip; a worthless person’. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 25 Sept. 14/2: That old rip [...] it appears, deserted his own wife [...] and went off with Annie Firmin. | |
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 199: You don’t know kings, Jim, but I know them; and this old rip of ourn is one of the cleanest I’ve struck in history. | |
| Little Jack Sheppard 31: 🎵 It is constantly stated that I’m a young rip, But you mustn’t believe all you hear. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Visit of Condolence’ in Roderick (1972) 32: The ragged young rip gave a long, low whistle. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 15 Apr. 1/8: [of a woman] Luk at that owld rip! She’s been to her duty an’ got religious. | |
| Fifty Years (2nd edn) II 215: There were only some rips in the Queen’s Vase. | |
| (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 119: You turned our shipmate out in the storm, you flaming Dutch rip. | |
| ‘Mother Carey’ in Salt-Water Ballads 48: Mother Carey? She’s the mother o’ the witches / ‘N’ all them sort o’ rips. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Nov. 39/2: Imagine, then, a young fellow like this falling into the hands of a seasoned old rip like Diogenes, and you have a case of the Prince Hal and Falstaff sort – the older corrupting the younger, with even graver results. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Eng. As We Speak It In Ireland (1979) 313: Rip; a coarse ill-conditioned woman with a bad tongue. | |
| ‘A Sea Of Troubles’ in Man with Two Left Feet 189: Miss Pillenger’s view was that he was smiling like an abandoned old rip who ought to have been ashamed of himself. | |
| Leave it to Psmith (1993) 361: Shocking young ass [...] And a rip, what’s more. | |
| Plough and the Stars Act II: Y’ oul’ rip of a blasted liar. | |
| (con. 1830s–60s) All That Swagger 291: Their parents remained unaware of their reputation as ‘foul-mouthed young rips’. | |
| Yorks. Eve. Post 2 jan. 5/3: ‘Wild, rampaging, hellfire rips,’ he said, and cocked a wicked eye at me. | |
| (con. 1936–46) Winged Seeds (1984) 58: Married men and middle-aged rips fluttered round them wherever they went. | |
| From Here to Eternity (1998) 565: Ony trouble is [...] is the goddam rip wants to marry me. | |
| Billy Bunter at Butlins 208: Take your knuckles out of my neck, will you, you young rip! | |
| Da (1981) Act I: Well, when you do get married, to whatever rip will have you. | |
| Out After Dark 137: Shut up, you rip, or I’ll swing for you. | |
| Snapper 35: I spent hours making those skirts for you two little rips. | |
| Salesman 335: Listen to this bad County Kerry rip, Liam. | |
| ‘Cold, Hard Love’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] [of a girl] ‘Little rip had a fake ID ’fore she was legal’. |
2. (US) an act of sexual intercourse.
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 25 Oct. n.p.: N—n K—n says he will give S. Ann H—f one more rip if the b’hoys don’t find it out [...] you are a good egg. |
3. (Aus. Und.) a blow, a punch.
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Jan. 6/3: He sent a left to Jack’s dial , and had just landed a forceful right rip on Jack’s chest. | |
| ‘In Spadger’s Lane’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 71: Rosie the Rip they calls ’er in the Lane; / Fer she wus alwus willin’ wiv ’er ’an’s. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 46: Fuck me dead if Punchy didn’t balk with a molly and came in under with a rip to the comics that fucking near tore him in half. | |
| (con. c.1910) in Samuel East End Und. 152: Darky was a big man and a fighter – he’d think nothing of giving someone a rip. | |
| (con. 1959) Up the Cross 79: A beautiful short left rip that sent him to his knees. |
4. (US police) a complaint (external or internal) against the police officer.
| ‘Police (Cops?) have Slanguage of Own’ in N.Y. Times 15 Feb. 65/5: Rip—a complaint against a policeman. |
5. (US police ) a disciplinary charge or punishment.
| Stories Cops Only Tell Each Other 61: It wasn’t a bad rip, but that rip cost me a quarter of a point on the sergeant’s exam. |
6. (US Und.) a scar [SE rip, a tear].
| Carlito’s Way 53: He had a bad face with a rip on it. |
7. a negative emotional outburst.
| Christine 81: Elaine kept accusing me of cheating. She was on one of her rips. Elaine always went on ‘rips’ when she was ‘getting her period’. |
8. with ref. to smoking [? one rips a cigarette paper from a pack to roll the cigarette].
(a) (US prison) a hand-rolled cigarette.
| Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Rip: Hand-rolled cigarette. (FL). |
(b) (US drugs) marijuana.
| ONDCP Street Terms 18: Rip — Marijuana. |
(c) (US drugs) a puff of crack cocaine.
| Cherry 233: He took a big rip of crack smoke. |
9. (US) a police raid.
| The Force [ebook] After the hookers and before the street cleaners, that’s the window of time you have to make a rip. |
10. see rip-off n.
In derivatives
of a person, worthless; raffish.
| Gent.’s Mag. Dec. n.p.: He was resolved to cut every man of Magdalene College; concluding, with an oath, that they were a parcel of rippish quizzes. | |
| New Sporting Mag. Nov. 32: There were a few half-roasted looking legs, with their greasy betting books in their hands [...] a few rippish looking horse-dealers, two or three nondescript gentlemen. | |
| Travels [...] in Upper India 302: From such fine sires and dams, it is perfectly astonishing to observe the really rippish, goose-rumped weedy produce. Like does not produce like, seemingly, in India. | |
| Morn. Chron. (London) 8 Oct. 7/2: Some rippish men about town and questionable women [...] noisily discussing champagne. | |
| Northern Echo 13 May 3/4: One of the lads [...] appears to enjoy a somewhat ‘rippish’ reputation. | |
| Newsweek in Graham Framing the South 113: An authentic portrayal of a sometimes loveable, sometimes hateful, rippish, raffish, shiftless, slightly uncouth, tobacco-drooling old bum. |
In phrases
to mock, to criticize, to attack verbally.
| Happy Like Murderers 373: Eating crisps and drinking cups of tea and taking the rip out of the police. |