different between rift vs gorge

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?ft, IPA^(key): /??ft/
• Rhymes: -?ft

Etymology 1

Middle English rift, of North Germanic origin; akin to Danish rift, Norwegian Bokmål rift (“breach”), Old Norse rífa (“to tear”). More at rive.

Noun

rift (plural rifts)

1. A chasm or fissure.

   My marriage is in trouble: the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.

   The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.

2. A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, page 130:

     I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.

3. A shallow place in a stream; a ford.

Derived terms

• rift valley

Translations

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (intransitive) To form a rift; to split open.
2. (transitive) To cleave; to rive; to split.

   to rift an oak

   • to the dread rattling thunder / Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak / With his own bolt

   • 1822, William Wordsworth, "A Jewish Family (in a small valley opposite St. Goar, upon the Rhine)" 9-11, [1]

     The Mother—her thou must have seen, / In spirit, ere she came / To dwell these rifted rocks between.

   • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter III, [2]

     he stopped rigid as one petrified and gazed through the rifted logs of the raft into the water.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (obsolete outside Scotland and northern Britain) To belch.

Etymology 3

Verb

rift (obsolete)

1. past participle of rive

   The mightie trunck halfe rent, with ragged rift

   Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefull drift.

Anagrams

• FTIR, frit

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the verb rive

Noun

rift f or m (definite singular rifta or riften, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “rift” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb rive or riva

Noun

rift f (definite singular rifta, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *rift?, *riftij?, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h?reb?- (“to cover; arch over; vault”). Cognate with Old High German peinrefta (“legwear; leggings”), Old Norse ript, ripti (“a kind of cloth; linen jerkin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rift/

Noun

rift n (nominative plural rift)

1. a veil; curtain; cloak

Related terms

• rifte

Descendants

• Middle English: rift

Romanian

Etymology

From French rift.

Noun

rift n (plural rifturi)

1. rift

Declension

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular present rifts, present participle riftin, past riftit, past participle riftit)

1. to belch, burp

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: gôj, IPA^(key): /???d?/
• (General American) enPR: gôrj, IPA^(key): /???d??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)d?

Etymology 1

From Middle English gorge (“esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten”), a borrowing from Old French gorge (“throat”) (modern French gorge (“throat; breast”)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *g?erh?- (“to devour, swallow; to eat”). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (“throat”), Italian gorga, gorgia (“gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat”), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”), Spanish gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”).

Noun

gorge (plural gorges)

1. (archaic) The front aspect of the neck; the outside of the throat.
2. (archaic, literary) The inside of the throat; the esophagus, the gullet; (falconry, specifically) the crop or gizzard of a hawk.
3. Food that has been taken into the gullet or the stomach, particularly if it is regurgitated or vomited out.
4. (US) A choking or filling of a channel or passage by an obstruction; the obstruction itself.
5. (architecture) A concave moulding; a cavetto.
6. (architecture, fortification) The rearward side of an outwork, a bastion, or a fort, often open, or not protected against artillery.
7. (fishing) A primitive device used instead of a hook to catch fish, consisting of an object that is easy to swallow but difficult to eject or loosen, such as a piece of bone or stone pointed at each end and attached in the middle to a line.
8. (geography) A deep, narrow passage with steep, rocky sides, particularly one with a stream running through it; a ravine.

   Synonym: canyon
9. (mechanical engineering) The groove of a pulley.

Usage notes

• (food taken into the gullet or stomach): A person's gorge is said to rise (that is, they feel as if they are about to vomit) if they feel irritated or nauseated.

Derived terms

Related terms

• gorget
• gorgeted

Translations

Etymology 2

The verb is derived from Middle English gorgen (“to eat greedily; to gorge”), a borrowing from Old French gorger, gorgier (modern French gorger (“to eat greedily; to gorge”)), from gorge (“throat”); see further at etymology 1.

The noun is derived from the verb.

Verb

gorge (third-person singular simple present gorges, present participle gorging, simple past and past participle gorged)

1. (intransitive, reflexive) To stuff the gorge or gullet with food; to eat greedily and in large quantities. [+ on (object)]
2. (transitive) To swallow, especially with greediness, or in large mouthfuls or quantities.
3. (transitive) To fill up to the throat; to glut, to satiate.

   Synonyms: sate, stuff
4. (transitive) To fill up (an organ, a vein, etc.); to block up or obstruct; (US, specifically) of ice: to choke or fill a channel or passage, causing an obstruction.

   Synonym: engorge

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

gorge (plural gorges)

1. An act of gorging.

Translations

Etymology 3

Clipping of gorge(ous); originally British slang.

Adjective

gorge (comparative more gorge, superlative most gorge)

1. (slang) Gorgeous.

Notes

References

Further reading

• canyon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• gorge (fortification) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• gorge (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• gorge at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Grego, Rogge, grego

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????/

Etymology 1

From Old French gorge, from Late Latin gurga, related to Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”).

Noun

gorge f (plural gorges)

1. throat
2. breast
3. gorge

Derived terms

Related terms

• ingurgiter
• régurgiter

Descendants

• ? Catalan: gorja
• ? Italian: gorgia
• ? Portuguese: gorja
• ? Spanish: gorja

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

gorge

1. first-person singular present indicative of gorger
2. third-person singular present indicative of gorger
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of gorger
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of gorger
5. second-person singular imperative of gorger

Further reading

• “gorge” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?rd?e

Noun

gorge f

1. plural of gorgia

Middle French

Noun

gorge f (plural gorges)

1. (anatomy) throat

Norman

Etymology

From Old French gorge, from Late Latin gurga, related to Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”).

Pronunciation

Noun

gorge f (plural gorges)

1. (Jersey, anatomy) throat

Derived terms

• bigorgi (“to slit a throat”)

Old French

Etymology

From Late Latin gurga, related to Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”).

Noun

gorge f (oblique plural gorges, nominative singular gorge, nominative plural gorges)

1. throat

Descendants

• French: gorge
  • ? Catalan: gorja
  • ? Italian: gorgia
  • ? Portuguese: gorja
  • ? Spanish: gorja
• ? Galician: gorxa