Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RHOM-BOID'AL, a.

Having the shape of a rhomboid, or a shape approaching it. Woodward.

RHOMB'-SPAR, n.

A mineral of a grayish white, occurring massive, disseminated and crystalized in rhomboids, imbedded in chlorite slate, limestone, &c. It consists chiefly of carbonates of lime and magnesia. – Ure.

RHU'BARB, n. [Pers. رَاوَندْ rawand. In Syr. raiborig. It seems to be a compound word, Latinized rhabarbarum.]

A plant of the genus Rheum, of several species; as, the rhapontic, or common rhubarb; the palmated, or Chinese rhubarb; the compact, or Tartarian; the undulated, or wave-leafed rhubarb; and the ribes, or currant rhubarb of mount Libanus. The root of a hitherto non-descript species is medicinal and much used as a moderate cathartic.

RHU'BARB-Y, a.

Like rhubarb.

RHUMB, n. [from rhomb.]

In navigation, a vertical circle of any given place, or the intersection of such a circle with the horizon; in which last sense rhumb is the same as a point of the compass.

RHUMB'-LINE, n.

In navigation, a line prolonged from any point of the compass on a nautical chart, except from the four cardinal points.

RHYME, n. [Sax. rim, and gerim, number; riman, to number; ge-riman, id.; riman and ryman, to give place, to open a way, to make room; Sw. and Dan. rim; D. rym; G. reim; W. rhiv; Ir. rimh or reomh. The Welsh word is rendered also, that divides or separates, and the Sax. rim seems to be connected with room, from opening, spreading. The deduction of this word from the Greek ῥυθμος, is a palpable error. The true orthography is rime or ryme; but as rime is hoar-frost, and rhyme gives the true pronunciation, it may be convenient to continue the present orthography.]

1. In poetry, the correspondence of sounds in the terminating words or syllables of two verses, one of which succeeds the other immediately, or at no great distance. For rhyme with reason may dispense, / And sound has right to govern sense. – Prior. To constitute this correspondence in single words or in syllables, it is necessary that the vowel, and the final articulations or consonants, should be the same, or have nearly the same sound. The initial consonants may be different, as in find and mind, new and drew, cause and laws.
2. A harmonical succession of sounds. The youth with songs and rhymes, / Some dance, some haul the rope. – Denham.
3. Poetry; a poem. He knew / Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. – Milton.
4. A word of sound to answer to another word. – Young. Rhyme or reason, number or sense. But from that time unto this season, / I had neither rhyme nor reason. – Spenser.

RHYME, v.i.

1. To accord in sound. But fagoted his notions as they fell, / And if they rhym'd and rattl'd, all was well. – Dryden.
2. To make verses. There march'd the bard and blockhead side by side, / Who rhym'd for hire, and patroniz'd for pride. – Pope.

RHYME, v.t.

To put into rhyme. – Wilson.

RHYM-ED, pp.

Put into rhyme.

RHYME-LESS, a.

Destitute of rhyme; not having consonance of sound. – Hall.

RHYM-ER, n. [or RHYM-IST, or RHYM-STER.]

One who makes rhymes; a versifier; a poor poet. – Johnson. Dryden.

RHYM'IC, a.

Pertaining to rhyme.

RHYN'CHO-LITE, n. [Gr. ῥυγχος, a beak, and λιθος, a stone.]

The petrified beak of a fowl.

RHYTHM, or RHYTH'MUS, n. [Gr. ῥυθμος.]

1. In music, variety in the movement as to quickness or slowness, or length and shortness of the notes; or rather the proportion which the parts of the motion have to each other. – Encyc.
2. Meter; verse; number. – Howell.
3. Rhythm is a successive motion subject to certain properties. In poetry, it is the relative duration of the moments employed in pronouncing the syllables of a verse; and in music, the relative duration of the sounds that enter into the composition of an air. – Anarch. Translation.

RHYTH'MIC-AL, a. [Gr. ῥυθμικος; L. rhythmicus.]

Having proportion of sound, or one sound proportioned to another; harmonical. – Johnson. Duly regulated by cadences, accents and quantities. – Busby.

RI'AL, n.¹

A Spanish coin. [See Real.]

RI'AL, n.² [from royal.]

A royal; a gold coin of the value of ten shillings sterling, formerly current in Britain. – Encyc.

RI'ANT, a. [Fr. from rire, to laugh.]

Laughing; exciting laughter. [Not anglicized.] – Buck.

RIB, n. [Sax. rib or ribb; Ice. rif; G. rippe; D. rib, a rib or rafter; Sw. refben, rib or side bone; Dan. ribbe or rib-been, rib-bone; Russ. rebro, a rib or side. This word, like the L. costa, signifies side, border, extremity, whence the compound in Sw. and Dan. rib-bone, that is, side-bone. It may be allied to the L. ripa. The sense of side is generally from extending.]

1. A bone of animal bodies which forms a part of the frame of the thorax. The ribs in the human body are twelve on each side, proceeding from the spine to the sternum, or toward it, and serving to inclose and protect the heart and lungs.
2. In ship building, a piece of timber which forms or strengthens the side of a ship. Ribs of a parrel, are short pieces of plank, having holes through which are reeved the two parts of the parrel-rope. – Mar. Dict.
3. In botany, the continuation of the petiole along the middle of a leaf, and from which the veins take their rise. – Martyn.
4. In cloth, a prominent line or rising, like a rib.
5. Something long, thin and narrow; a strip. [W. rhib.]

RIB, v.t.

1. To furnish with ribs. In manufactures, to form with rising lines and channels; as, to rib cloth; whence, we say, ribbed cloth.
2. To inclose with ribs. – Shak.

RIB'ALD, a.

Low; base; mean. – Shak.

RIB'ALD, n. [Fr. ribaud; It. ribaldo, a rogue, and as an adjective, poor, beggarly; Arm. ribaud, a fornicator. Qu. D. rabout, rabauw, a rogue or rascal. According to the Italian, this word is a compound of ri or re, and baldo, bold, or Sp. baldio, idle, lazy, vagrant, untilled. But the real composition of the word is not ascertained.]

A low, vulgar, brutal wretch; a lewd fellow. – Shak. Spenser. Pope.

RIB'ALD-ISH, a.

Disposed to ribaldry. – Hall.

RIB'ALD-ROUS, a.

Containing ribaldry. – J. M. Mason.