riding school

A school or place where the art of riding is taught. riding-skirt s. A skirt worn by females when riding on horseback. riding-whip, s . A light whip used when riding. rid-ing, subst. [For thriding , the lo of the th being due to the misdivision of the compound words North-thriding, East-thriding, and West - thriding , from Icel. thridhjungr the third part of a thing, the third part of a shire, from thrid hi =third. (Skeat.)] One of the three divisions into which the county of York, England, is divided, and known as the North, East, and West Ridings . They were formerly under the government of a reeve. "When a county is divided into three of these intermediate jurisdictions, they are called thridings. These thridings still subsist in the large county of York, where by an easy corruption they are denominated ridings ."Black stone: Comment. (Introd. § 4.) sin, as; expect, Xenophon, exist. ph = f. *ri-dot-tō, v. i. [RIDOTTO, s.] To frequent ri- dottos. "And heroines, whilst 'twas the fashion, Ridotto'd on the rural plains." "Dear Smith, the sleest, paukie thief, That e'er attempted stealth or rief ." "He rifeleth both boke and belle."-Gower: C. A., v. 2. To plunder, to rob, to pillage, to strip. B. In trans.: To plunder, to pillage, to rob. *ri-fle (2), v. t . & i. [RAFFLE.] To raffle. "Will any man (not desperate) run into an infected house, to rifle for a rich suit?"- Bp . Hall : Quo Vadis78 14. IMG:content-0638.png:[blocks in formation] rief (3), s . & a. [A. S. hreof =scab, hreofla =a hö a a rifled gun; Ger. riefeln =to groove, riefe = leper; Icel. hrjúgr =scabby.] IMG:content-0639.png:[blocks in formation] rife-lý, adv . [Eng. rife, a.; -ly.] Prevalently, commonly; abundantly, frequently. "Whose ranckling wound as yet does rifely bleede." Spenser: Shepherd's Calendar ; Dec. rife'-ne , s. [Eng. rife , a.; -ne .] The quality or state of being rife; prevalence, frequency, abun- dance. rif-fle, s . [Ger. riffeln =to groove.) [RIFLE, 8.] 1. A small wave; a ripple. ( U. S. ) 2 Metallurgy : An inclined trough or chute down which auriferous slime or sand is conducted in a gentle stream, which is broken by occasional slats, or by depre ions containing mercury, which arrests the gold. To make the rifle : To succeed. rif-fier, s . [ Eng.rifft (e); -er.] A file with a side so convex as to operate in shallow depre ions: used by sculptors, carvers, and gun-stockers. Rif- flers are usually made of steel, but sometimes of wrought-iron, and case-hardened, so that their shape may be modified to a certain extent by bend- ing on a block of lead with a mallet. riff-răff, *riffe-raffe, *rif-raffe, s. [Prop. rif and raf every particle, from Fr. rif et raf , from rif =a piece of plunder; rifler =to rifle (q. v.); O. Fr. raffler .] 1. The term applied to any musket or gun-barrel which is grooved so that the projectile may have a rotatory motion on its own axis. The rifling may be poly groove as in the Armstrong and other guns, with only two grooves as in some of the early weapons, with the two grooves with the angles rounded away so as to produce an oval and yet twisted bore as in the Lancaster guns, or with three or more grooves as in most modern weapons. The grooves are of varying size, form, and width, and of different degrees of twist in the length of the barrel itself, that of the Henry riffing being one turn in twenty-two calibers or widths of the bore. The bul- let is made to fit the bore either by expansion of the base of the lead bullet, or, as in the early pat- tern, by having the ball "belted," so that the belt should take the groove and so emerge from the muzzle with a rotatory motion. 2. ( Pl .): A body of troops armed with rifles. 3. A strop with a surface of emery for whetting scythes, . "All our sports and recreations, if we use them well, must be to our body or mind, as the mower's whetstone, or rifle , is to his scythe, to sharpen it when it grows dull." - Whateley: Redemption of Time , p. 11. rifle-ball, s. A bullet for firing with a rifle. They are now made cylindrical in shape with a conoidal head, the base being hollow and furnished with a plug, which causes the metal to expand and fit into the rifling of the gun. rifle-bird, s. Ornith.: Ptiloris paradise a . The English name is said to have been given by early settlers in Aus tralia from the resemblance of the color of the plumage of the cock to that of the uniform of the Rifle brigade. Velvety-black; glo ed with purple; feathers of abdomen tipped with a chevron of green bronze; crown of head green; middle pair of tail-quills and triangular patch on throat bluish- emerald. The hen is grayish-brown above, deep buff beneath, each feather with a black chevron. rifle-brigade, s . rifle-pit, s. A pit or tronch which, together with the excavated earth, forms a defense for a rifleman in an advanced position, where he may pick off the enemy's gunners or defend his own line. Usually rifle-pits are holes four feet long and three feet deep, the parapet of earth cro od by sandbags having a loophole through which fire. rifle man, s. [Eng. rifle , s., and man .] 1. A soldier or sportsman armed with a rifle. [RIFLE-BRIGADE.] "The name now has lost nearly all meaning, for the whole infantry are now riflemen."-Chambers' Encyc., viii. 260. 2. A member of a rifle corps; a volunteer. rifleman-bird, s . "The rifleman - bird proper is said to get its food by thrusting its somewhat long bill under the loose bark on the boles or boughs of trees, along the latter of which it runs swiftly, or by searching for it on the ground be- 1. Refuse, rubbish, sweepings. "Long it were to make rehersall of all this rifrafe , and neath." -Encyc . Brit . (ed. 9th), xx. 553. IMG:content-0640.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0641.png:[blocks in formation] fate, fat, färe, amidst, what, fall, father; we, wět, here, camel, her, thêre; pine, pit, sire, sir, or, wöre, Rigel Ri'-gěl, s . [Corrupted Arabic.] Astron.: A star of the first magnitude at the left foot of Orion. Called also beta Or i on is. It is of a bluish color. ri-ges-çent, adj. [Latin rigescens, pr. par. of rigesco, incept. from rigeo = to be stiff.] Becoming stiff or rigid.