Riata

//ɹɪˈɑːtə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A lariat or lasso. US, regional

    "“You double-crossing devil,” the young man growled. “[…] Hereafter you'll trot ahead of me at the end of a riata, while I keep you on the jump with a four-horse whip. Right now you're scattering my dunnage from hell to breakfast, […]”"

  2. 2
    a long noosed rope used to catch animals wordnet

Example

More examples

"“You double-crossing devil,” the young man growled. “[…] Hereafter you'll trot ahead of me at the end of a riata, while I keep you on the jump with a four-horse whip. Right now you're scattering my dunnage from hell to breakfast, […]”"

Etymology

From Spanish reata, from reatar (“to retie”). Compare lariat.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.