Rips

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Tears or splits material or fabric roughly ; removes or takes away something quickly or forcefully
2. Causes rough breaks or openings in an object or surface ; forcefully pulls or extracts something with speed
3. Makes jagged breaks in a surface by pulling apart ; swiftly takes something away in a violent or abrupt manner

Etymology: The verb "rip" descends from a Middle English "rippen", meaning "to pluck", which was itself formed from an older "ryppen" and traces back to a Proto-Germanic verb meaning "to break". Its cousins are lively: German "rupfen" still means to pluck feathers from a bird, and Dutch and Low German forms keep the same sense of pulling something apart. The English verb "reap" is a relative too, through Old English "rīpan", which meant "to plunder" before it came to mean harvesting grain. The word's exact origin is uncertain. One suggestion links it to "rep", a slang term for a reprobate, though this is considered weak. Another possible relative is "rub", and the two may be doublets, meaning they split from a common source and took different shapes in English. "Rips" is simply the third-person singular form of the verb, and the plural of the noun "rip", a tear or split in cloth.

Synonyms: tears, lacerations, cuts, slits, ruptures

Antonyms: repairs, mends, sews, joins, patches