rivaye 
rivayet, e. i. [ME., appar. < OF. "riveter, hawk 
by the bank of a river, < rive, bank : see rice*, 
rive&, river 2 .] To hawk. 
I salle never rymye, ne racches un-cowpylle, 
At roo ne rayne dere that rynnes apponne erthe. 
Morte Arthure (E. E. T. 8.), 1. 4000. 
rive 1 (riv), v. ; pret. rived, pp. riced or riven, ppr. 
riving. [< ME. riuen, ryven (pret. rof, roof, raf, 
ref, pp. riven, rifen, revert), < leel. rifa (pret. 
ri/, pp. rifinn), rive, = Sw. ri/va = Dan. rie, 
scratch, tear, = D. rycew = MLG. riren, grate, 
rake, = OHG. riban, MHG. riben, G. reiben, rub, 
grate (but the OHG. form may be for "wriban 
= D. wrijven = MLG. wriven, LG. wriven, rub). 
Hardly allied to Gr. cpe'mecv, throw or dash 
down, tear down, or cpetKctv, tear, break, rend, 
rive, = Skt. V rikh, scratch. Hence rive 1 , n., 
rift 1 , and ult. ricel, rifle*, and perhaps ribald. 
CL rip 1 , ripple 1 .] I. trans. 1. To split; cleave; 
rend asunder by force : as, to rive timber for 
rails, etc., with wedges ; the oak is riven. 
And [he] lUte vp the serpentes skyn, and ro/hym thourgh 
the body with the swerde. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), 111. 849. 
But It would have made your heart right sair . . . 
To see the bridegroom rive his hair. 
The Cruel Brother (Child's Ballads, II. 256). 
The scolding winds 
Have rived the knotty oaks. 
Shale., J. C., 1. 8. 8. 
2t. To cause to pierce ; thrust. 
This swerde thurgh thyn herte dial I ryve. 
Chaucer, Good Women, 1. 1793. 
3f. To pierce ; stab. 
She rof [var. roof] hirselven to the herte. 
Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 878. 
But Quyon drove BO furious and fell 
That seemed both shield and plate it would hare riv'd. 
Spenser, F. Q., III. i. 6. 
4. To explode; discharge. [Rare.] 
Ten thousand French have ta'en the sacrament 
To rive their dangerous artillery 
Upon no Christian soul but English Talbot. 
Shale., 1 Hen. VI., iv. 2. 29. 
=Syn. 1. See rendl. 
II. iiitrans. 1. To be split or rent asunder; 
fall apart. 
Nought allone the sonne was mirke, 
But howe youre vaile raffe in yonre klrke, 
That witte I wolde. York Plays, p. 401. 
The soul and body rive not more in parting 
Than greatness going olf. 
Shot., A. and C., iv. 13. 5. 
There is such extreame colde in those parts that stones 
and trees doe euen riue asunder in regarde thereof. 
Hakluyt's Voyages, I. 111. 
The captain, . . . seeing Tinlinn . . . floundering in the 
bog, used these words of insult: "Sutor Watt, ye cannot 
sew your boots, the heels risp, and the seams rive." 
Scott, L. of L. M., iv. 4, note. 
rive 1 (riv), n. [= Icel. rifn, a cleft, fissure; 
from the verb. Cf. rira.] 1. A place torn; a 
rent; a tear. Brocket!. [Prov. Eng.] 2. That 
which is torn, as with the teeth. 
Our horses got nothing but a ripe o' heather. 
Hogg, Perils of Man, II. 246. (Jamieson.) 
rive 2 t, [ME., < MD. ryve (= MHG. rive), a 
rake, < rijven, scrape, scratch: see rive 1 ."] A 
rake. Nominate MS. (Halliwett.) 
rive 3 (riv), a. An obsolete or dialectal form of 
rife 1 . 
rive 4 (riv), w. [ME. rive, < OF. rive, < L. ripa, 
a bank of a stream, rarely the shore of the sea ; 
of doubtful origin. Cf. Gr. ep'mvq, a broken 
cliff, scar, a steep edge or bank, < epe'meiv, tear 
down. From the L. ripa are also ult. E. ripe 3 . 
rive 5 , arrive, rivage 1 , etc. See raw 2 .] Bank; 
shore. 
Now bringeth me atte rive 
Schip and other thing. 
Sir Tristrem, p. 34. (Jamieson.) 
riV6 5 t (riv), . . [< ME. riven, aphetic form 
of ariven, arrive: see arrive. Cf. OF. river, fol- 
low the edge or border of a stream, road, or 
wood, < rive, bank, edge: see ritie*.] 1. To 
land; arrive. 
That ichc, let and dere, 
On londe am rived here. 
MS. Laud. 108, f. 220. (HallimU.) 
2. To go ; travel. 
Then they rieed east and they rived west 
In many a strange country. 
King Arthur and the King of Cornwall (Child's Ballads, I. 
[233). 
rivel (riv'el), i'. t.; pret. and pp. riveted or riv- 
elled, ppr. riveling or rivalling. [< ME. rivelen, a 
freq. form, < AS. "rifian, wrinkle, in pp. ge-rifod 
(in Somner also erroneously "geriflod, *gerifled), 
wrinkled; prob. connected with rice: see rive 1 
and of. rifle 2 .} To wrinkle; corrugate; shrink: 
as, riveted fruit; riveted flowers. 
5196 
He lefte vp his heed, that was lothly and rivelid, and 
loked on high to hym with oon eye open and a-nother clos, 
. . . grennynge with his teth as a man that loked a-geln 
the sonne. Merlin (E. E. T. 8.), ii. 262. 
I'll give thee tackling made of rivelled gold, 
Wound on the barks of odoriferous trees. 
Marlowe and Naihe, Dido, ill. 1. 115. 
Griefe, that sucks veines drie, 
Biuels the skinne, casts ashes in mens faces. 
Marston and Webster, Malcontent, ii. 3. 
Ev'ry worm industriously weaves 
And winds his web about the rivell'd leaves. 
Cotrper, Tirocinium, 1. 590. 
rivelt (riv'el), n. [< ME. rivel; < rivel, v."] A 
wrinkle. Wyclif, Job xvi. 8; Huloet. 
riveling 1 ! (riv'el-ing), . [< ME. riveling; ver- 
bal n. of rivel, v.~\ A wrinkle. 
To ghyue the chyrche glorious to hymsilf that it hadde 
no wem ne ryueling or ony such thing. Wyclif, Eph. v. 27. 
riveling 2 t, n. [Also reveling, and dial, rii'lin : 
OSc. rewelyn, etc.; < ME. riveling, reviling (> 
AF. rivelings), < AS. rifeling, a kind of shoe.] 
1. A rough kind of shoe or sandal of rawhide, 
formerly worn in Scotland. 
Sum es left na thing 
Boute his rivyn riveling. 
Wright, Political Songs, p. 307. (Eneyc. Diet.) 
2. A Scotchman. [Contemptuous.] 
Rugh-fute reviling, now kiudels thi care, 
Bere-bag with thi boote, thi biging es bare. 
Wr! : iht, Polit. Poems and Songs, I. 62. 
riven (riv'n),^.. [Pp. of tire 1 , f.] Split; rent 
or burst asunder. 
The well-stack'd pile of riven logs and roots. 
Cowper, Task, iv. 444. 
river 1 (ri'ver), n. [< r/fe 1 + -er 1 .] One who 
rives or splits. 
An honest block river, with his beetle, heartily calling. 
J. Echard, Obs. on Ans. to Contempt of Clergy, p. 23. 
((Latham.) 
river 2 (riv'er), w. [< ME. river, rivere (= D. 
rivier, river, = MHG. ririer, brook, riviere, 
rivier, recier, district), < OF. riviere, P. riviere, 
a river, stream, = Pr. ribeira, ribayra, shore, 
bank, plain, river, = Sp. ribera, shore, strand, 
sea-coast, = Pg. ribeira, a meadow near the 
bank of a river (ribeiro, a brook), = It. riviera, 
the sea-shore, a bank, also a river, < ML. ripa- 
ria, a sea-shore or river-bank, a river, fern, of 
L. riparius, of or belonging to a bank, < ripa, a 
bank of a stream (rarely the coast of the sea) : 
see rice 3 . The word river is not connected 
with the word rivulet.'] 1. A considerable body 
of water flowing with a perceptible current 
in a certain definite course or channel, and usu- 
ally without cessation during the entire year. 
Some watercourses, however, are called riveri although 
their beds may be almost, or even entirely, dry during 
more or less of the year. As water must find its way 
downward, under the influence of gravity, wherever the 
opportunity is offered, most rivers reach the ocean, which 
is the lowest attainable level, either independently or by 
uniting with some other stream ; but this process of join- 
ing and becoming merged in another river may be re- 
peated several times before the main stream is finally 
reached. Asa general rule, the river which heads furthest 
from the sea, or which has the longest course, retains Its 
name, while the affluents entering it lose their identity 
when merged in the larger stream. There are various ex- 
ceptions to this, one of the most remarkable of which is 
the Mississippi, which retains that name to its mouth, 
although the affluent called the Missouri is much longer 
than the Mississippi and somewhat larger at the junction. 
Asia, 'North America, and South America have "closed 
basins," or regions in which the surplus water does not find 
its way to the sea, for the reason that there evaporation is 
in excess of precipitation, so that the water cannot accu- 
mulate to a height sufficient to allow It to run over at the 
lowest point in the edge of the basin, and thus reach the 
sea. The water carried by rivers is rain or melted snow, 
a part of which runs on the surface to the nearest rivulet 
while the rain is falling, or immediately after it has fallen, 
while a larger part consists of that rain-water which, fall- 
ing upon a permeable material, such as sand and gravel, 
sinks beneath the surface for a certain distance, and then 
makes its way to the nearest available river, more or less 
slowly according to the permeability of the superficial 
material, the extent to which it is saturated with water, 
and the nature and position of the impermeable beds, as 
of clay or crystalline rocks, which may underlie it. Were 
the surface everywhere entirely impermeable, the rainfall 
would be carried at once to the nearest rivers, and disas- 
trous freshets would be the rule rather than the exception 
in regions of large rainfall. It is a matter of great im- 
portance that many of the largest rivers head in high 
mountain regions, where the precipitation is chiefly or 
entirely in the form of snow, which can melt only gradu- 
ally, so that disastrous floods are thus prevented, while 
the winter's precipitation in many regions is stored away 
for summer's use, extensive tracts being thus made avail- 
able for habitation which otherwise would be deserts. 
The size of a river depends chiefly on the orographlcal 
features and the amount of rainfall of the region through 
which it flows. Thus the Amazon is the largest river in 
the world because the peculiar topography of South 
America causes the drainage of a vast region (over a mil- 
lion and a half square miles) to converge toward one cen- 
tral line, and because throughout the whole course of that 
river and its branches there is a region of very large rain- 
fall. The Orinoco, although draining an area less than 
river-chub 
one fifth of that of the Amazon, is navigable for fully 1,000 
miles, and is, when full, over three miles wide at 560 miles 
from its mouth, because it drains a region of extraordina- 
rily large precipitation. The Missouri-Mississippi, on the 
other hand, although draining an area nearly as large as 
that of the Amazon, is very much inferior to that river in 
volume at its mouth, because it flows for a considerable 
part of its course through a region where the precipitation 
is very small, while it is not extraordinarily large in any 
part of the Mississippi basin. The area drained by any 
river is called Its basin; but this term is not generally 
used except with reference to a river of considerable size, 
and then includes the main river and all its affluents. 
The edge of a river-basin is the watershed, in the United 
States frequently called the divide, and this may be a 
mountain-range or an entirely inconspicuous elevation of 
the surface. Thus, for a part of the distance, the divide 
between the Mississippi basin and that of the Great Lakes 
is quite imperceptible topographically. Exceptionally 
some large rivers (as the Amazon and Orinoco) inoscu- 
late with each other. 
The river Rhine, it is well known, 
Doth wash your city of Cologne. 
Coleridge, Cologne. 
In speaking of rivers, Americans commonly put the 
name before the word river, thus : Connecticut river, 
c'harlesn'eer, Merrimackn'rer; whereas the English would 
place the name after it, and say, the river Charles, &c. 
And when English writers copy from our geographers, 
they commonly make this alteration, as will be seen by 
referring to any of the English Gazetteers. 
Pickering, Vocab. 
2. In laic, a stream of flowing water, of great- 
er magnitude than a rivulet or brook. It may 
be navigable or not ; the right to use it may be purely 
public, or it may be private property ; it may arise from 
streams, or constitute the outlet of a lake ; it may be 
known by the appellation of river or by some other name 
these particulars not being material to its legal charac- 
ter as a river. Bishop. 
3. A large stream ; copious flow; abundance: 
as, rivers of oil. 
Rivers of blood I see, and hills of slain, 
An Iliad rising out of one campaign. 
Addison, The Campaign. 
Flash, ye cities, in rivers of fire ! 
Tennyson, Welcome to Alexandra. 
River and Harbor Bill, an appropriation bill generally 
passed in recent years by the United States Congress, for 
the improvement of navigable waters, the development of 
streams, etc., alleged to be suitable for navigation. Such 
a bill was In 1882 vetoed by the President on account of 
its extravagance ($18,000,000) and "log-rolling " character. 
The amount appropriated has increased from less than 
*4,000,000 in 1870 to almost ?25,000,000 in 1890. River 
Brethren, a denomination of Baptists in the United 
States, which arose during the Revolution, and derived its 
origin from the Mennonites. It recognizes three orders 
of clergy, rejects infant baptism, and baptizes adults by 
a threefold immersion. Its other church ordinances are 
the communion, feet-washing, and the love-feast. To 
set the river on fire. See fire. 
riverain (riv'er-an), a. [< F. riverain, pertain- 
ing to or dwelling on the banks of a river, < 
riviere, a river: see rirer 2 .] Riparian. 
Turkish authorities do not attempt to run their steam- 
ers up and down throughout the year, but content them- 
selves with a few trips between Beles and Hillah while 
the river remains in flood from April to August, with the 
political object of controlling the riverain tribes rather 
than for purposes of commerce. Encyc. Brit., VIII. 671. 
98 per cent, of the entries In the tables were correct 
within 8 inches of actual heights at open coast stations, 
and 69 per cent, at riverain stations. Nature, XLI. 140. 
river-bass (riv'er-bas), n. Any bass of the ge- 
nns Mieropterus. 
river-bed (riv'er-bed), w. The channel in which 
a river flows. 
river-birch (riv'er-berch), n. A moderate-sized 
tree, Betula nit/ra, common southward in the 
eastern half of the United Stages, growing 
chiefly along streams. Its wood is used in the 
manufacture of furniture, wooden ware, etc. 
Also red birch. 
river-bottom (riv'er-bot"um), . The alluvial 
land along the margin of a river. See bottom, 
3. [U.S.] 
river-bullhead (riv'er-bul'hed), n. The mill- 
er's-thumb, Cottus or Uranidea gobio. 
river-carp (riv'er-karp), . The common carp, 
Cyprians carpio, as living in rivers: distin- 
guished from pond-carp. 
nver-chub (riv'er-chub), . A cyprinoid fish, 
the hornyhead or jerker, Ceratichthys bigutta- 
tux, widely distributed and abundant in the 
w 
River-chub (Ceratichthys bigiittatus}. 
United States, attaining a length of from 6 to 
9 inches. There are numerous fishes of the 
same genus which share the name. 
