Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RI'VAL, a.

Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority; as, rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions. Equal in years and rival in renown. – Dryden.

RI'VAL, n. [L. rivalis; Fr. and Sp. rival; It. rivale; Ir. rioblach; Heb. רוב, to contend, to strive; Dan. rives, to strive; Sp. rifa, strife, raffle; rifar, to dispute, quarrel or raffle, and to split a sail. Qu. to rive or rip. See Raffle.]

1. One who is in pursuit of the same object as another; one striving to reach or obtain something which another is attempting to obtain, and which one only can possess; a competitor; as, rivals in love; rivals for a crown. Love will not patiently bear a rival.
2. One striving to equal or exceed another in excellence; as, two rivals in eloquence.
3. An antagonist; a competitor in any pursuit or strife.

RI'VAL, v.i.

To be competitors. [Not in use.] Shak.

RI'VAL, v.t.

1. To stand in competition with; to strive to gain the object which another is contending for; as, to rival one in love.
2. To strive to equal or excel; to emulate. To rival thunder in its rapid course. – Dryden.

RI'VAL-ED, pp.

Having another competing with; emulated.

RI'VAL-ING, ppr.

Striving to equal or excel; emulating.

RI-VAL'I-TY, n.

Rivalry. [Not in use.] – Shak.

RI'VAL-RY, n. [from rival.]

Competition; a strife or effort to obtain an object which another is pursuing; as, rivalry in love; or an endeavor to equal or surpass another in some excellence; emulation; as, rivalry for superiority at the bar or in the senate.

RI'VAL-SHIP, n.

1. The state or character of a rival. – B. Jonson.
2. Strife; contention for superiority; emulation; rivalry.

RIVE, v.i.

To be split or rent asunder. Freestone rives, splits and breaks in any direction. Woodward.

RIVE, v.t. [pret. rived; pp. rived or riven. Dan. revner, to split; river, to pluck off or away, to rake; Sw. rifva, to pull asunder, to burst or rend, to rake, to tear; Ice. rifa, Sw. refva, a chink or crevice; Fr. crever, whence crevasse, crevice; Russ. rvu; allied to L. rumpo, rupi. It may be allied to the family of L. rapio, reap, rip.]

To split; to cleave; to rend asunder by force; as, to rive timber for rails or shingles with wedges; the riven oak; the riven clouds. – Dryden. Milton. The scolding winds / Have riv'd the knotty oaks. – Shak.

RIV'EL, v.t. [Sax. gerifled, wrinkled; from the root of Dan. river, to draw, to wrest, Sw. rifva. This word is obsolete, but shrivel, from the same root, is in use. It may be allied to ruffle.]

To contract into wrinkles; to shrink; as, riveled fruit; riveled flowers. – Dryden. Pope.

RIV'EL-ED, pp.

Wrinkled.

RIV'EL-ING, ppr.

Shrinking; contracting into wrinkles.

RIV'EN, pp. [of Rive.]

Split; rent or burst asunder.

RI'VER, n.¹

One who rives or splits.

RIV'ER, n.² [Fr. rivière; Arm. rifyer; Corn. ryvier; It. riviera; from L. rivus, rivulus; D. rivier. The Italian word, signifies a river, and a bank or shore, L. ripa, Sp. ribera.]

1. A large stream of water flowing in a channel on land toward the ocean, a lake or another river. It is larger than a rivulet or brook; but is applied to any stream from the size of a mill-stream to that of the Danube, Maranon and Mississippi. We give this name to large streams which admit the tide and mingle salt water with fresh, as the rivers Hudson, Delaware, and St. Lawrence.
2. A large stream; copious flow; abundance; as, rivers of blood; rivers of oil.

RIV'ER-BED, n.

The bed or bottom of a river.

RIV'ER-CHAN-NEL, n.

The channel of a river.

RIV'ER-COURSE, n.

The course of a river.

RIV'ER-DEL-TA, n.

A delta formed by the current of a river.

RIV'ER-DRAG-ON, n.

A crocodile; a name given by Milton to the king of Egypt.

RIV'ER-ET, n.

A small river. [Not in use.]

RIV'ER-GOD, n.

A deity supposed to preside over a river, as its tutelary divinity; a naiad. – Lempriere.

RIV'ER-HORSE, n.

The hippopotamus, an animal inhabiting rivers. – Milton.