Dictionaries › English

rig

Pronunciation: /ɹɪɡ/

The English word “rig” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The rigging of a sailing ship or other such craft.
  2. Special equipment or gear used for a particular purpose.
  3. A large truck, especially a semi-trailer truck.
  4. The special apparatus used for drilling wells.
  5. A costume or an outfit.
  6. A personal computer, typically one modified for looks.
  7. An imperfectly castrated horse, sheep etc.
  8. Radio equipment, especially a citizen's band transceiver.
  9. Equipment used for taking recreational drugs.
  10. A model outfitted with parameterized controls for animation.
  11. A ridge.
  12. A wanton person; one given to unbecoming conduct.
  13. A promiscuous woman.

verb

  1. To equip and fit (a ship) with sails, shrouds, and yards.
  2. To move (a heavy object) with the help of slings, hoists, block and tackle, levers, or similar equipment.
  3. To dress or clothe in some costume.
  4. To make or construct something in haste or in a makeshift manner.
  5. To manipulate something dishonestly for personal gain or discriminatory purposes.
  6. To make free with; hence, to steal; to pilfer.
  7. To outfit a model with controls for animation.

Etymology

From Early Modern English rygge, probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian rigge (“to bind up; wrap around; rig; equip”), Swedish dialectal rigga (“to rig a horse”), Faroese rigga (“to rig; to equip and fit; to make s.th. function”). Possibly from Proto-Germanic *rik- (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European *rign-, *reyg- (“to bind”); or related to Old English *wrīhan, wrīohan, wrēohan,…

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