riffle

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)
• HYPHEN: rif=fle

CIDE DICTIONARY

riffle, n. [CF. G. riffeln, riefeln, to groove. Cf. Rifle a gun.].

•  A trough or sluice having cleats, grooves, or steps across the bottom for holding quicksilver and catching particles of gold when auriferous earth is washed; also, one of the cleats, grooves, or steps in such a trough. Also called ripple.  [1913 Webster]
•  A ripple in a stream or current of water; also, a place where the water ripples, as on a shallow rapid.

  "The bass have left the cool depth beside the rock and are on the riffle or just below it."  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

riffle, v. & n.
--v.
1 tr. a turn (pages) in quick succession. b shuffle (playing-cards) esp. by flexing and combining the two halves of a pack.
2 intr. (often foll. by through) leaf quickly (through pages).
--n.
1 the act or an instance of riffling.
2 (in gold-washing) a groove or slat set in a trough or sluice to catch gold particles.
3 US a a shallow part of a stream where the water flows brokenly. b a patch of waves or ripples on water.

Etymology

perh. var. of RUFFLE

THESAURUS

riffle

ball up, billow, bollix up, bore, breakers, chop, choppiness, chopping sea, chute, cockle, comb, comber, confound, confuse, dimple, dirty water, eagre, foul up, fret, fumble, garble, gravity wave, ground swell, heave, heavy sea, heavy swell, jumble, lift, lop, mix up, muck up, muddle, peak, pi, play hob with, popple, rapid, rapids, riff, ripple, rise, roll, roller, rough water, sault, scend, scramble, screw up, sea, send, shoot, shuffle, snafu, snarl up, surf, surge, swell, tidal bore, tidal wave, tide wave, trough, tsunami, tumble, undulation, water wave, wave, wavelet, white horses, whitecaps

ROGET THESAURUS

riffle

River

N river, running water, jet, spirt, spurt, squirt, spout, spray, splash, rush, gush, jet d'eau, sluice, water spout, water fall, cascade, force, foss, lin, linn, ghyll, Niagara, cataract, rapids, white water, catadupe, cataclysm, debacle, inundation, deluge, chute, washout, rain, rainfall, serein, shower, scud, downpour, driving rain, drenching rain, cloudburst, hyetology, hyetography, predominance of Aquarius, reign of St. Swithin, mizzle, drizzle, stillicidum, plash, dropping, falling weather, northeaster, hurricane, typhoon, stream, course, flux, flow, profluence, effluence, defluxion, flowing, current, tide, race, coulee, spring, artesian well, fount, fountain, rill, rivulet, gill, gullet, rillet, streamlet, brooklet, branch, runnel, sike, burn, beck, creek, brook, bayou, stream, river, reach, tributary, geyser, spout, waterspout, body of water, torrent, rapids, flush, flood, swash, spring tide, high tide, full tide, bore, tidal bore, eagre, hygre, fresh, freshet, indraught, reflux, undercurrent, eddy, vortex, gurge, whirlpool, Maelstrom, regurgitation, overflow, confluence, corrivation, wave, billow, surge, swell, ripple, anerythmon gelasma, beach comber, riffle, rollers, ground swell, surf, breakers, white horses, whitecaps, rough sea, heavy sea, high seas, cross sea, long sea, short sea, chopping sea, hydrodynamics, hydraulics, hydraulicostatics, rain gauge, flowmeter, pegology, irrigation, pump, watering pot, watering cart, hydrant, syringe, garden hose, lawn spray, bhisti, mussuk, fluent, diffluent, profluent, affluent, tidal, flowing, meandering, meandry, meandrous, fluvial, fluviatile, streamy, showery, rainy, pluvial, stillicidous, stillatitious, for men may come and men may go but I go on foreve, that old man river, he just keeps rolling along.