Noun (2)
the movie is a rib of the "dramatic love story" that was so popular in the 1950s
began to lose his sense of humor after being the butt of his friends' ribs once too often Verb (2)ribbed him a bit about fumbling such an easy play
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The man, who identified himself only by his initials, L.H., also suffered from a broken left shoulder, seven broken ribs and bruising of his lungs after being hit by the train and dragged down the platform.—Ellen Moynihan, New York Daily News, 21 June 2024 And trying to choose impactful visuals that will stick to the ribs of the audience to help prop those themes up is important.—Destiny Jackson, Deadline, 18 June 2024 Over the following two days, clinical staffers flagged four more call-center errors involving elderly patients with urgent complaints, including stomach pain and blood in stool, a spike in blood pressure, an insect bite and sudden rib pain, according to the internal spreadsheet.—Caroline O'Donovan, Washington Post, 15 June 2024 Rios, who was a suspect in a road rage case, survived the September 2022 collision but suffered nine broken ribs, a broken arm and other injuries.—Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 5 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for rib
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rib.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
Middle English, from Old English ribb; akin to Old High German rippi rib, Old Church Slavonic rebro, and probably to Greek erephein to roof over
Verb (2) and Noun (2)
probably from rib entry 1; from the tickling of the ribs to cause laughter
First Known Use
Noun (1)
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
: one of the series of curved bones of the chest of most vertebrates that are joined to the spinal column in pairs and help to support the body wall and protect the organs inside
b
: a cut of meat including a rib
2
: something (as a piece of wire supporting the fabric of an umbrella) resembling a rib
3
a
: a major vein of an insect's wing or of a leaf
b
: one of the parallel ridges in a knitted or woven fabric
: any of the paired curved bony or partly cartilaginous rods that stiffen the lateral walls of the body of most vertebrates and protect the viscera, that occur in mammals exclusively or almost exclusively in the thoracic region, and that in humans normally include 12 pairs of which all are articulated with the spinal column at the dorsal end and the first 10 are connected also at the ventral end with the sternum by costal cartilages see false rib, floating rib, true rib
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