- [countable] any of the curved bones that are connected to the spine and surround the chest
- a broken/bruised/cracked rib
- Stop poking me in the ribs!
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- broken
- bruised
- cracked
- …
- break
- bruise
- crack
- …
- cage
- injury
- against the/your ribs
- in the/your ribs
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- [uncountable, countable] a piece of meat with one or more bones from the ribs of an animal see also prime rib, short ribs, spare ribTopics Foodc2
- [countable] a curved piece of wood, metal or plastic that forms the frame of a boat, roof, etc. and makes it stronger
- a roof with rib vaulting
- [uncountable, countable] a way of knitting (= making clothing using wool and two long needles) that produces a pattern of straight lines up and down in which some are raised higher than others
- a rib cotton sweater
Word OriginOld English rib, ribb (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch rib(be) and German Rippe. The sense ‘tease’ was originally a US slang usage meaning ‘to fool, dupe’ (1930s).
Idioms
See rib in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarydig somebody in the ribs
- to push your finger or your elbow into somebody’s side, especially to attract their attention
Check pronunciation:
rib