river
See also: River
English
A river
Etymology 1
From Middle English ryver, river, rivere, from Anglo-Norman rivere, from Old French riviere, from Vulgar Latin *rīpāria (“riverbank, seashore, river”), from Latin rīpārius (“of a riverbank”), from Latin rīpa (“river bank”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to scratch, tear, cut”). Doublet of riviera and rivière. Displaced native Old English ēa.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɹɪvə/
- (General American) enPR: rĭv'ər, IPA(key): /ˈɹɪvɚ/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪvə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: riv‧er
Noun
river (plural rivers)
- A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, oftentimes ending in another body of water, such as an ocean or in an inland sea.
- 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, OCLC 305520:
- By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
- 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
- Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
- Occasionally rivers overflow their banks and cause floods.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:river
-
- Any large flow of a liquid in a single body.
- a river of blood
- (poker) The last card dealt in a hand.
- 2017, Nathan Schwiethale, Ace High: Mastering Low Stakes Poker Cash Games (page 70)
- He called instantly but was too ashamed to show until the river.
- 2017, Nathan Schwiethale, Ace High: Mastering Low Stakes Poker Cash Games (page 70)
- (typography) A visually undesirable effect of white space running down a page, caused by spaces between words on consecutive lines happening to coincide.
Usage notes
- As with the names of lakes and mountains, the names of rivers are typically formed by adding the word before or after the unique term: the River Thames or the Yangtze River. Generally speaking, names formed using adjectives or attributives see river added to the end, as with the Yellow River. It is less common to add river before names than it is with lakes, but many of the rivers of Britain are written that way, as with the River Severn; indeed, British English tends to use "River X" in such cases while American, South African, Australian and New Zealand English use "X River". The former derives from the earlier but now uncommon form river of ~: the 19th century River of Jordan is now usually simply the River Jordan.
- It is common to preface the proper names of rivers with the article the.
- Concerning the reference of its coordinate terms, some people say:[1] you can step over a brook, jump over a creek, wade across a stream, and swim across a river.
Derived terms
Terms derived from river (etymology 1, noun)
- Bear River
- cross the river
- cry someone a river
- Eagle River
- Elk River
- Fall River
- French River
- Green River
- Hay River
- Hood River
- Indian River
- Kansas River
- Klip River
- Little River
- lost river
- Mad River
- Mooi River
- Moose River
- Pearl River
- Powder River
- riverbank
- river basin
- river bed
- riverbed
- river birch
- river blindness
- riverboat/river boat
- river bottom
- river boulder
- river dolphin
- river duck (Anatinae)
- riverfront
- river hog (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)
- river horse
- riverine
- river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis)
- river limpet (Ancylus fluviatilis)
- river mouth
- river mussel (Unionidae)
- river otter
- river pear (Grias cauliflora)
- river prawn (Macrobrachium spp.)
- river runner
- river shad (Alosa chrysochloris, Gudusia spp.)
- riverside
- river snail (Viviparidae)
- riverward
- river water
- riverway
- Rush River
- salmon river, Salmon River
- sell down the river
- St. Johns River
- submarine river
- Three Rivers
- Touws River
- up the river
- White River
- Yellow River
- English lemmas starting with river
Related terms
- tributary (noun)
Descendants
- → Finnish: river (“river (in poker)”)
- Sranan Tongo: liba
Translations
See river/translations § Noun.
See also
- fluvial
- Category:Rivers
Verb
river (third-person singular simple present rivers, present participle rivering, simple past and past participle rivered)
- (poker) To improve one’s hand to beat another player on the final card in a poker game.
- Johnny rivered me by drawing that ace of spades.
Etymology 2
rive + -er
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɹaɪvə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɹaɪvɚ/
- Rhymes: -aɪvə(ɹ)
Noun
river (plural rivers)
- One who rives or splits.
References
- Definitions of rivers, stream, brooks, creeks and other terms (Goran Šafarek, WorldRivers.net, November 29, 2018)
Further reading
- river in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
Danish
Noun
river c
- indefinite plural of rive
Verb
river
- present of rive
Finnish
Etymology
< English river
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈriʋer/, [ˈriʋe̞r]
- Rhymes: -iʋer
- Syllabification(key): ri‧ver
Noun
river
- (poker) river (fifth communal card in Texas hold'em)
Declension
| Inflection of river (Kotus type 6/paperi, no gradation) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | river | riverit | |
| genitive | riverin | riverien rivereiden rivereitten | |
| partitive | riveriä | rivereitä riverejä | |
| illative | riveriin | rivereihin | |
| singular | plural | ||
| nominative | river | riverit | |
| accusative | nom. | river | riverit |
| gen. | riverin | ||
| genitive | riverin | riverien rivereiden rivereitten | |
| partitive | riveriä | rivereitä riverejä | |
| inessive | riverissä | rivereissä | |
| elative | riveristä | rivereistä | |
| illative | riveriin | rivereihin | |
| adessive | riverillä | rivereillä | |
| ablative | riveriltä | rivereiltä | |
| allative | riverille | rivereille | |
| essive | riverinä | rivereinä | |
| translative | riveriksi | rivereiksi | |
| instructive | — | riverein | |
| abessive | riverittä | rivereittä | |
| comitative | — | rivereineen | |
| Possessive forms of river (type paperi) | ||
|---|---|---|
| possessor | singular | plural |
| 1st person | riverini | riverimme |
| 2nd person | riverisi | riverinne |
| 3rd person | riverinsä | |
Synonyms
- viides avokortti, viimeinen avokortti
See also
- joki (“river”)
French
Etymology
From a Germanic source (compare Danish rive).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʁi.ve/
Verb
river
- to drive/set a rivet
Conjugation
Conjugation of river (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | river | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | rivant /ʁi.vɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | rivé /ʁi.ve/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | rive /ʁiv/ | rives /ʁiv/ | rive /ʁiv/ | rivons /ʁi.vɔ̃/ | rivez /ʁi.ve/ | rivent /ʁiv/ |
| imperfect | rivais /ʁi.vɛ/ | rivais /ʁi.vɛ/ | rivait /ʁi.vɛ/ | rivions /ʁi.vjɔ̃/ | riviez /ʁi.vje/ | rivaient /ʁi.vɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | rivai /ʁi.ve/ | rivas /ʁi.va/ | riva /ʁi.va/ | rivâmes /ʁi.vam/ | rivâtes /ʁi.vat/ | rivèrent /ʁi.vɛʁ/ | |
| future | riverai /ʁi.vʁe/ | riveras /ʁi.vʁa/ | rivera /ʁi.vʁa/ | riverons /ʁi.vʁɔ̃/ | riverez /ʁi.vʁe/ | riveront /ʁi.vʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | riverais /ʁi.vʁɛ/ | riverais /ʁi.vʁɛ/ | riverait /ʁi.vʁɛ/ | riverions /ʁi.və.ʁjɔ̃/ | riveriez /ʁi.və.ʁje/ | riveraient /ʁi.vʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) | present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | rive /ʁiv/ | rives /ʁiv/ | rive /ʁiv/ | rivions /ʁi.vjɔ̃/ | riviez /ʁi.vje/ | rivent /ʁiv/ |
| imperfect2 | rivasse /ʁi.vas/ | rivasses /ʁi.vas/ | rivât /ʁi.va/ | rivassions /ʁi.va.sjɔ̃/ | rivassiez /ʁi.va.sje/ | rivassent /ʁi.vas/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | rive /ʁiv/ | — | rivons /ʁi.vɔ̃/ | rivez /ʁi.ve/ | — | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Related terms
- rive
Further reading
- “river”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- virer
Latin
Verb
rīver
- first-person singular present passive subjunctive of rīvō
Middle English
Noun
river
- Alternative form of ryver
Norwegian Bokmål
Noun
river m or f
- indefinite plural of rive
Verb
river
- present of rive
Norwegian Nynorsk
Noun
river f
- indefinite plural of rive
Verb
river
- (non-standard since 2012) present tense of riva
Swedish
Verb
river
- present tense of riva.
Anagrams
- revir, virre