Riffle

//ˈɹɪfəl// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A swift, shallow part of a stream causing broken water.

    "They then proceeded below the milldam, where there was a strong riffle, with likely looking pools and eddies"

  2. 2
    In seal engraving, a small metal disc at the end of a tool.
  3. 3
    shuffling by splitting the pack and interweaving the two halves at their corners wordnet
  4. 4
    A succession of small waves.
  5. 5
    a small wave on the surface of a liquid wordnet
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    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 trough.
  2. 7
    A quick skim through the pages of a book.
  3. 8
    Synonym of riffle shuffle
  4. 9
    The sound made while shuffling cards.
Verb
  1. 1
    To flow over a swift, shallow part of a stream. intransitive
  2. 2
    shuffle (playing cards) by separating the deck into two parts and riffling with the thumbs so the cards intermix wordnet
  3. 3
    To ruffle with a rippling action. transitive
  4. 4
    twitch or flutter wordnet
  5. 5
    To skim or flick through the pages of a book. intransitive
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    stir up (water) so as to form ripples wordnet
  2. 7
    To leaf through rapidly. transitive

    "Near-synonym: rifle"

  3. 8
    look through a book or other written material wordnet
  4. 9
    To shuffle playing cards by separating the deck in two and sliding the thumbs along the edges of the cards to mix the two parts. transitive
  5. 10
    To idly manipulate objects with the fingers. transitive
  6. 11
    To prepare samples of material using a riffler. transitive
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
rippleball upbillowbollix upborebreaker

Example

More examples

"They then proceeded below the milldam, where there was a strong riffle, with likely looking pools and eddies"

Etymology

Etymology 1

Possible alteration of ruffle, from Middle English ruffelen, akin to Low German ruffelen (“to crumple”).

Etymology 2

From Danish [Term?] (“a groove”). Compare rifle (“to score, to make grooves”) and the past participle riflet (“scored, grooved, rifled”), riffeln with the same meaning. Also see rifle (“a rifled gun”).

Related phrases

cheater rifflemake the riffleriffle beetleriffle bugriffle shuffle

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