Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RI-CIN'IC-AC'ID, n. [RI-CIN'IC AC'ID.]

A substance obtained by distilling castor oil at a high temperature.

RICK, n. [Sax. hreac or hrig; Ir. cruach; W. crug, a rick, an apostem, a heap, a stack, a hillock; crugaw, to heap or pile, to swell, to grow into an apostem. It. coincides with the G. rücken, D. rug, the back, Eng. ridge.]

A heap or pile of grain or hay in the field or open air, but sheltered with a kind of roof. In America, we usually give this name to a long pile; the round and conical pile being called stack. In the north of England, it is said this name is given to small piles of corn in the field. Mortimer.

RICK'ETS, n. [In technical language, rachia, Gr. ῥαχιτις from ῥαχις, back or spine, Eng. rack, applied to the neck piece of meat; Sp. raquitio, the rickets. See Rack and Ridge.]

A disease which affects children, and which is characterize by a bulky head, a crooked spine, depressed ribs, enlarged and spungy articular epiphyses, tumid abdomen, short stature, flabby and wrinkled flesh, together with clear and often premature mental faculties. – Good.

RICK'ET-Y, a.

1. Affected with rickets. – Arbuthnot.
2. Weak; feeble in the joints; imperfect.

RIC'O-CHET, n. [Fr. duck and drake.]

In gunnery, the firing of guns, mortars or howitzers with small charges, and elevated a few degrees, so as to carry the balls or shells just over the parapet, and cause them to roll along the opposite rampart. This is called ricochet-firing, and the batteries are called ricochet-batteries. – Encyc.

RIC'TURE, n.

A gaping.

RID, pp. [or adj.]

Free; clear; as, to be rid of trouble. To get rid of, to free one's self. – Addison.

RID, v. [pret. of Ride.]

RID, v.t. [pret. rid; pp. id. Sax. ahreddan or hreddan; D. redden; G. retten or erretten; Dan. redder; allied probably, to W. rhidiaw, to secrete, to drain, that is, to separate or drive off; whence riddle. See Class Rd, No. 63, 69.]

1. To free; to deliver; properly, to separate, and thus to deliver or save. That he might rid him out of their hands. – Gen. xxxvii. I will rid you out of their bondage. – Exod. vi.
2. To separate; to drive away. I will rid evil beasts out of the land. – Lev. xxvi. [This use is not common.]
3. To free; to clear; to disencumber; as, to rid one of his care. It is not easy to rid the sea of pirates. – B. Jonson. Resolv'd at once to rid himself of pain. – Dryden.
4. To dispatch. For willingness rids away. – Shak.
5. To drive away; to remove by violence; to destroy. Ah death's men! you have rid this sweet young prince. – Shak.

RID'DANCE, n.

1. Deliverance; a setting free; as, riddance from all adversity. – Hooker.
2. Disencumbrance. – Shak.
3. The act of clearing away. – Milton. Thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field. – Lev. xxiii.

RID'DEN, or RID, pp. [of Ride.]

RID'DING, ppr.

Freeing; clearing; disencumbering.

RID'DLE, n.¹ [Sax. hriddel; W. rhidyll, from rhidiaw, to secrete, to separate; Corn. ridar or krodar; Arm. ridell or croezr; Ir. criathar, a riddle; cratham, to shake; G. rütteln, to shake, to riddle; W. crydu, to shake; allied to rid and to cradle, from driving. See Cradle.]

An instrument for cleaning grain, being a large sieve with a perforated bottom, which permits the grain to pass through it, but retains the chaff.

RID'DLE, n.² [Sax. rædelse; D. raadzel; G. räthsel; from Sax. ræden, D. raaden, G. rathen, to counsel or advise, also to guess. See Read.]

1. An enigma; something proposed for conjecture, or that is to be solved by conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous proposition. – Judges xiv. Milton.
2. Any thing ambiguous or puzzling. – Hudibras.

RID'DLE, v.i.

To speak ambiguously, obscurely or enigmatically. – Shak.

RID'DLE, v.t.¹

1. To separate, as grain from the chaff with a riddle; as, to riddle wheat. Note. The machines now used have nearly superseded the riddle.
2. To perforate with balls; to make little holes in, as a house riddled with shot.

RID'DLE, v.t.²

To solve; to explain; but we generally use unriddle, which is more proper. Riddle me this, and guess him if you can. – Dryden.

RID'DLER, n.

One who speaks ambiguously or obscurely. – Horne.

RID'DLING, n.

That which is deposited by riddling.

RID'DLING-LY, adv.

In the manner of a riddle; secretly. – Donne.

RIDE, n.

1. An excursion on horseback or in a vehicle.
2. A saddle horse. [Local.] – Grose.
3. A road cut in a wood or through a ground, for the amusement of riding; a riding.

RIDE, v.i. [pret. rode or rid; pp. rid, ridden. Sax. ridan; G. reiten; D. ryden; Sw. rida; Dan. rider; W. rhedu, to run; L. rheda, a chariot or vehicle; Hindoo, ratha, id.; Sax. rad, a riding or a road; Ir. ratha, riadh, a running; reatham, to run; ridire, a knight; allied to ready, G. bereit; beriten, to ride, and to get ready. See Ready. Class Rd, No. 5, 9.]

1. To be carried on horseback, or on any beast, or in any beast, or in any vehicle. We ride on a horse, on a camel, in a coach, chariot, wagon, &c.
2. To be borne on or in a fluid. A ship rides at anchor; the ark rode on a flood; a balloon rides in the air. He rode on a cherub and did fly; yea, he did fly on the wings of the wind. – Ps xviii.
3. To be supported in motion. Strong as the axle-tree / On which heaven rides. – Shak.
4. To practice riding. He rides often for his health.
5. To manage a horse well. He rode, he fenc'd, he mov'd with graceful ease. – Dryden.
6. To be supported by something subservient; to sit. On whose foolish honesty / My practices rid easy. – Shak. To ride easy, in seamen's language, is when a ship does not labor or feel a great strain on her cables. To ride hard, is when a ship pitches violently, so as to strain her cables, masts, and hull. To ride out, as a gale, signifies that a ship does not drive during a storm.

RIDE, v.t.

1. To sit on, so as to be carried; as, to ride a horse. They ride the air in whirlwind. – Milton.
2. To manage insolently at will; as in priest-ridden. The nobility could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, cobblers, and brewers. – Swift.
3. To carry. [Local.]

RI-DEAU', n. [rido'; Fr.]

A small mound of earth.

RI'DER, n.

1. One who is borne on a horse or other beast, or in a vehicle.
2. One who breaks or manages a horse. – Shak.
3. The matrix of an ore. – Gregory.
4. An inserted leaf or an additional clause, as to a bill in parliament.
5. In ship building, a sort of interior rib fixed occasionally in a ship's hold, opposite to some of the timbers to which they are bolted, and reaching from the keelson to the beams of the lower deck, to strengthen her frame. – Mar. Dict.