Ridge
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ɹɪdʒ/
- Rhymes: -ɪdʒ
Alternative forms
- rig dialectal
Origin
From Middle English rigge, rygge, (also rig, ryg, rug), from Old English hrycg ("back, spine, ridge, elevated surface"), from Proto-Germanic *hrugjaz ("back"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreuk-, *(s)ker- ("to turn, bend"). Cognate with Scots rig ("back, spine, ridge"), North Frisian reg ("back"), West Frisian rêch ("back"), Dutch rug ("back, ridge"), German Rücken ("back, ridge"), Swedish rygg ("back, spine, ridge"), Icelandic hryggur ("spine"). Cognate to Albanian kërrus ("to bend one's back") and kurriz ("back").
Noun
ridge
(plural ridges)- (anatomy) The back of any animal; especially the upper or projecting part of the back of a quadruped.
- Any extended protuberance; a projecting line or strip.
- The line along which two sloping surfaces meet which diverge towards the ground.
- 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher Chapter 1, It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick.
- The highest point on a roof, represented by a horizontal line where two roof areas intersect, running the length of the area.
- 1907, w, The Dust of Conflict Chapter 26, Maccario, it was evident, did not care to take the risk of blundering upon a picket, and a man led them by twisting paths until at last the hacienda rose blackly before them. Appleby could see it dimly, a blur of shadowy buildings with the ridge of roof parapet alone cutting hard and sharp against the clearing sky.
- (fortifications) The highest portion of the glacis proceeding from the salient angle of the covered way.
- A chain of mountains.
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616)the frozen ridges of the Alps
- A chain of hills.
- A long narrow elevation on an ocean bottom.
- (meteorology) A type of warm air that comes down on to land from mountains.