rib

plural ribs

1. anatomyAny of a series of long curved bones occurring in 12 pairs in humans and other animals and extending from the spine to or toward the sternum.

   On an early winter afternoon, clear but not cold, when the vegetable world was a weird multitude of skeletons through whose ribs the sun shone freely, a gleaming landau came to a pause on the crest of a hill in Wessex.

   1882, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in Two on a Tower. A Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 1

2. broadlyA part or piece, similar to a rib, and serving to shape or support something.

   a broken rib on the umbrella

3. A cut of meat enclosing one or more rib bones.
4. nauticalAny of several curved members attached to a ship's keel and extending upward and outward to form the framework of the hull.
5. aeronauticsAny of several transverse pieces that provide an aircraft wing with shape and strength.
6. architectureA long, narrow, usually arched member projecting from the surface of a structure, especially such a member separating the webs of a vault
7. engineeringA strip of metal running along the top of the barrel that serves as a sighting plane.
8. businessA raised ridge in knitted material or in cloth.
9. biologyThe main, or any of the prominent veins of a leaf.
10. A teasing joke.
11. IrelandcolloquialA single strand of hair.
12. A stalk of celery.
13. archaichumorousliteraryA wife or woman.

    'Near to it was the portrait of his rib, Dame Middleton.'

    1862, George Borrow, Wild Wales

present singular third person ribs · participle present ribbing · participle past ribbed · past ribbed

1. To shape, support, or provide something with a rib or ribs.
2. To tease or make fun of someone in a good-natured way.

   He always gets ribbed for his outrageous shirts.

   1 more example

   Mr. Musk, who wore a suit and tie to Thursday’s meeting instead of his usual T-shirt after Mr. Trump publicly ribbed him about his sloppy appearance, defended himself by saying that he had three companies with a market cap of tens of billions of dollars, and that his results spoke for themselves.

   2025 March 7, Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman, “Inside the Explosive Meeting Where Trump Officials Clashed With Elon Musk”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

3. To enclose, as if with ribs, and protect; to shut in.

   It [lead] were too gross To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]

4. transitiveTo leave strips of undisturbed ground between the furrows in ploughing (land).

plural ribs

1. biologyHound's-tongue (Cynoglossum officinale).
2. biologyCostmary (Tanacetum balsamita).
3. biologyWatercress (Nasturtium officinale).

plural RIBs

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of rigid inflatable boat (“a lightweight inflatable boat with a rigid hull”).

   Synonyms: rigid inflatable boat, rigid-hulled inflatable boat, rhibbie, ribbie, RHIB

2. Internetrouting information base