R I S 
ginal.—It has its rise from the lazy admonitions of those who 
give rules, and propose examples, without joining practice 
with their instructions. Locke. —Elevation; increase of 
sou id.—In the ordinary rises and falls of the voice, there 
fall out to be two beemolls between the unison and the dia¬ 
pason. Bacon. — [lirys, Icel. rys, Teut. a twig.] A bough; 
a branch. In Lancashire a rizen or ryzen hedge is a fence 
of boughs and stakes; and in the west of England a ryce or 
rise fence is one of twigs or wattles.—-As white as lilie or rose 
on rise. Chaucer. 
RISEN, part, of to rise. 
RISENTITO, in the Italian Music, a brisk, lively, or ex¬ 
pressive manner of playing. 
RISER, s. One that rises. 
The isle of iEsea, where the palace stands 
Of th’ early riser, with the rosy hands, 
Active Aurora; where she loves to dance. Chapman. 
RISHANGLES, a parish of England, in Suffolk; 4 miles 
south-by-east of Eye. 
RISHI, in Hindoo Mythology, is a general name for an¬ 
cient sages or saints. Considerable difficulty occurs in deter¬ 
mining, with any exactitude, who they were, whether they 
had any historical existence, or are merely the creatures of 
the imagination. Seven of them are most frequently spoken 
of; by some said to be the first rational beings created by 
Brahma. Each has a wife, and a numerous offspring. The 
wives of these patriarchs have been transferred to the 
heavens, and are the stars called by western astronomers the 
Pleiades; by the Hindoos, Kritika. The Rishis are said 
to be the bright stars in the great bear. 
RISHTON, a township of England, in Lancashire; 4 miles 
north-east-by east-of Blackburn. Population 1084. 
RISHWORTH, a township of England, West Riding of 
Yorkshire; mile from Halifax. Population 1211. 
RISIBI'LITY, s. The quality of laughing.—How comes 
lowness of style to be so much the propriety of satyre, that 
without it a poet can be no more a satyrist, than without 
risibility he can be a man. Dryden. 
RI'SIBLE, adj. [risibilis Lat.] Having the faculty or 
power of laughing.—We are in a merry world, laughing is 
our business; as if because it has been made the definition 
of a man, that he is risible, his manhood consisteth in 
nothing else. Gov. of the Tongue. —Ridiculous ; exciting 
laughter. 
RI'SING, s. Act of getting up from a fall.—This child is 
set for the fall and rising again of many. St. Luke, ii. 34. 
—Appearance of the sun, of a star, or other luminary, above 
the horizon, which before was hid beneath it.—From the 
rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Ps. 1.1 .—A 
tumour.—'This is the law—for a rising, and for a scab, and 
for a bright spot. Lev. xiv. 56.—'Tumult; insurrection. 
He’s follow’d both with body and with mind, 
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood 
Of fair king Richard scrap’d from Pomfret stones. 
Shakspeare. 
Resurrection.—They kept that saying within themselves, 
questioning one with another what the rising from the dead 
should mean. St. Mark, xi. 10. 
RISING, in ship-building, a tenn derived from the figure 
•of a ship’s bottom in general, which gradually narrows or 
becomes sharper towards the stem and stern-post. On this 
account it is that the floors, towards the extremities of the 
ship, are raised or lifted above the keel; otherwise the shape 
would be so very acute, as not to be obtained from timber 
with sufficient strength in the middle or cutting-down. The 
floor-timbers forward and abaft are therefore.gradually lifted 
or raised upon a solid body of wood, called the dead or 
rising-wood, which must of course have more or less rising 
as the body of ship assumes more or less fullness or capacity. 
Thus we have Rising-floors, the foremost and aftermost 
floors.— Rising-line, an elliptical line drawn in the plan 
of elevation, by which line, with its corresponding half- 
Vol. XXII. No. 1488. 
R I T 117 
breadth or narrowing line, the figure of the bottom near the 
floor-heads is determined.—R ising-square, a square upon 
which is marked the height of the rising-line above the upper 
edge of the keel.—R ising-straight, a curve line used in 
whole moulding drawn in the sheer plan, at the intersection 
of the straight part of the bend mould, when continued to 
the middle line at each timber.—R ising-wood, that part 
of the basis of a ship’s body, forward and abaft, which is 
formed by solid pieces of timber scarfed together lengthwise 
on the keel. 
RISK, s. [risque, Fr. rischio, Ital. riesgo riezgo , 
Spanish. The origin of this word is very obscure.] Hazard; 
danger; chance of harm.—Some run the risk of an absolute 
ruin for the gaining of a present supply. L'Estrange. — 
An innocent man ought not to run an equal risk with a 
guilty one. Richardson. 
To RISK, v. a. \risquer, Fr.] To hazard; to put to 
chance; to endanger. 
Who would hope new fame to raise, 
Or risk his well-established praise, 
That, his high genius to approve, 
Had drawn a George or carv’d a Jove. Addison . 
RI'SKER, s. He who risks. 
He thither came, t’ observe and smoak 
What course other riskers took. Butler. 
RISLEY, a parish of England, in Bedfordshire; 10 miles 
from Bedford. Population 650. 
RISLEY, a hamlet of England, in Derbyshire; 
miles east-by-south of Derby. 
RISLIP, a village of England, in Middlesex, between 
Uxbridge and Pinner. 
RISOLUTIONE, [Ital.] in Music, the resolution of a dis¬ 
cord. See Music. 
RISOLUTIO, [Ital.] resolved solution, as of a close canon 
by putting it in score, or by signs. 
RISORIUS NOVUS, in Anatomy, a name given by 
Santorini to a muscle, formed of that part of the quadrates 
gense which arises from the cheek. 
RISPOSTA, or Riposta, [Ital.] an answer, whether in a 
dialogue or to a regular fugue. 
RISSE. The obsolete preterite of rise. 
Bisse not the consular men and left their places, 
So soon as thou sat’st down; and fled thy side ? B. Jonson. 
RISSINGTON, Great, Little, and Wick, three ad¬ 
joining parishes of England, in Gloucestershire, near Stow 
on the Wold. 
RISTON, a village of England, in Somersetshire, near 
Taunton. 
RISVIGLIATO, [Ital.] in Music, when applied to a gay 
and lively movement succeeding one that is sorrowful, implies 
vivacity and spirit. 
RISUM, a large village of Honover, in east Friesland; 8 
miles west of Embden. 
RISUS SARDONICUS, [Lat.] Sardonic Laughter, 
a convulsive affection of the muscles of the face, charac¬ 
terized by unnatural laughter. 
The phrase is by some said to be founded on this, that in 
Sardinia there is a venomous plant, which occasions such a 
contraction of the muscles of the face in persons it kills, that 
they seem to die laughing in this manner. 
RITE, s. [ritus, Lat.] Solemn act of religion; external 
observance.—The ceremonies, we have taken from such as 
were before us, are not things that belong to this or that sect, 
but they are the ancient rites and customs of the church. 
Hooker. 
When the prince her fun’ral rites had paid, 
He plow’d the Tyrrhene seas. Dryden. 
RITORNE'LLO, s. [Ital-] The repeat, or burden of an 
air or song.—Confine the organist to a slightly ornamented 
refraine, or ritornello, at the end of each stave or stanza. 
Mason. 
2 H 
RITRO; 
