rift Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a gap between cloud masses
    • the sun shone through a rift in the clouds
  2. noun a narrow fissure in rock
  3. noun a personal or social separation (as between opposing factions)
    severance; falling out; break; breach; rupture.
    • they hoped to avoid a break in relations

WordNet

Rift
Definitions
obs.
  1. p. p. of Rive. Spenser.
Rift noun
Etymology
Dan. rift, fr. rieve to rend. See Rive.
Definitions
  1. An opening made by riving or splitting; a cleft; a fissure. Spenser.
  2. A shallow place in a stream; a ford.
Rift transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Rifted; present participle & verbal noun Rifting
Definitions
  1. To cleave; to rive; to split; as, to rift an oak or a rock; to rift the clouds. Longfellow.
    To dwell these rifted rocks between. Wordsworth.
Rift intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To burst open; to split. Shak.
    Timber . . . not apt to rif with ordnance. Bacon.
  2. To belch. Prov. Eng. & Scot.

Webster 1913