Dictionaries › English

reef

Pronunciation: /ɹiːf/

The English word “reef” has 11 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A chain or range of rocks, sand, or coral lying at or near the surface of the water.
  2. A large vein of auriferous quartz; hence, any body of rock yielding valuable ore.
  3. A portion of a sail rolled and tied down to lessen the area exposed in a high wind.
  4. A reef knot.
  5. The itch; any eruptive skin disorder.
  6. Dandruff.

verb

  1. To take in part of a sail in order to adapt the size of the sail to the force of the wind.
  2. To pull or yank strongly, especially in relation to horse riding.
  3. To move the floats of a paddle wheel toward its center so that they will not dip so deeply.
  4. To manipulate the lining of a person's pocket in order to steal the contents unnoticed.

adjective

  1. Scabby; scurvy.

Etymology

From earlier riff, from Middle English rif, from Old Norse rif (“rib, reef”), from Proto-Germanic *ribją (“rib, reef”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rebʰ- (“arch, ceiling, cover”). Dutch rif (“reef”), Low German riff, reff (“reef”), German Riff (“reef, ledge”) are also borrowed from Old Norse. Doublet of rib.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “reef” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.