Green’s Dictionary of Slang

excellent, first-rate, wonderful; thus rippingly adv.

1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 263: The bay side is a tearin’, rippin’ fine country.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 57: We plants ripping Sall on the bloke, she flokessed his nibs, and hooked it off to his crib, unscrewed the drum, made the lob and scarpered.
1853		Sala ‘Slang’ Household Words 24 Sept. 76/1: Anything of good quality or character is stunning, ripping, out-and-out.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 232: That’s beautiful, that is! that’s rippin’.
1877		Belgravia xxxii 241: Mr. Wilkie Collins’s last novel is a ripping book [F&H].
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 60: I shot past the head at a ripping rate, the current was so swift.
1886		Sporting Times 27 Feb. 1/3: ‘Have you seen the Pink ’Un? Ripping’.
1893		‘’Arriet on Labour’ Punch 26 Aug. 88/1: Bashing a knobstick’s ripping fun, no doubt — for them as bashes.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 67: Ripping, same as‘stunning,’ excellent, very good.
1898		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Everything in the Garden’s Lovely 🎵 ‘There’s a nice fat lump! A slap up sort of gel / You have first look, old swell she’s ripping I can tell’.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Jan. 10/8: Can sing a rattling good song, tells a ripping story.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 45: Going to some ripping rooms in Claverton Street.
1909		Observer (N.Z.) 27 Nov. 51/2: I could make up some ripping speeches for you.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Nov. 10/1: ‘Oh, we did rippingly! In some towns lots of people couldn’t get into the theatre.’.
1912		A. Brazil Fourth Form Friendship 219: ‘I say! Wouldn’t it be jolly if we [...] row ourselves up the river to Holt’s farm?’ [...] ‘Ripping!’ said Godfrey.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 3 Apr. 5/4: Renie M. will have a ripping time during the Easter week .
1915		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 24 June [synd. cartoon] Yes. A ripping ad I think.
1916		Joyce Portrait of Artist as Young Man 84: Go on, Dedalus, he urged, you can take him off rippingly.
1917		Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, NY) 6 Apr. 18/1: ‘Yes, “perfectly first” is cultured slang, you know, and isn’t it a ripping phrase?’.
1919		‘Sapper’ Mufti 203: Sonning, I think — to that ripping pub where the roses are.
1920		E.F. Benson Queen Lucia (1984) 85: ‘Lord! What a lark!’ she said. ‘Georgie, it’s the most ripping lark!’.
1930		N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 175: ‘I say, you look ripping in that costume,’ said Cummings, appeased.
1932		Z. Grey Robbers’ Roost 106: She said: ‘So Bernie Herrick sent a desperado to be my escort? How perfectly rippin!’.
1935		E.F. Benson Mapp and Lucia (1984) 166: How ripping that you’re thinking about kitchen-doors already.
1942		P. Larkin letter 19 Sept. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 44: Incidentally I read Beverley Nichols’ ‘News of England’ last week and thought it jolly ripping.
1958		H.S. Thompson letter 12 Nov. Proud Highway (1997) 140: I haven’t had a real ripping orgy in quite a while.
1964		P. Larkin ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ Whitsun Weddings 31: Me and my cloak and fangs / Had ripping times in the dark!
1986		F. Pitt-Kethley Sky Ray Lolly 46: Father – self-made, writer of ripping yarns, / fifty years editor of The Wide World.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 211: I don’t want to be an old man with a ripping yarn to tell.
2000		Indep. 25 Mar. 13: ‘Ripping yarns’ in which popular girls are ‘good eggs’.