rife

comparative rifer · superlative rifest

1. Widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things).

   Smallpox was rife after the siege had been lifted.

   5 more examples

   Rumors were rife that the factory was about to shut down.

   Before the plague of London, inflammations of the lungs were rife and mortal.

   1712, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies

   The tumult of loud mirth was rife.

   Comus

   1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC

   She was afterwards Lady Keith; and the mention of this name in the tale, as it were by mere accident, fixes the era of it in the reign of James the Fourth, at the very time that fairies, brownies, and witches, were at the rifest in Scotland.

   1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet

   The 'denominational considerations' mentioned below relate, of course, to anti-Semitic feeling, which was already rife in Vienna during the last years of the nineteenth century.

   1900, Sigmund Freud, translated by James Strachey, The Interpretation of Dreams: Avon Books, page 170

   Synonyms: pandemic

2. Abounding; present in large numbers, plentiful.

   Seeds are rife in a watermelon.

   1 more example

   Red deer are rife in these woodlands.

   Synonyms: filled

3. Full of (mostly unpleasant or harmful things).

   Many post-colonial governments were rife with lawlessness and corruption.

   1 more example

   They will have to reflect on a seventh successive defeat in a European final while Chelsea try to make sense of an eccentric season rife with controversy and bad feeling but once again one finishing on an exhilarating high.

   2013 May 15, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian

   Synonyms: fraught

4. obsoleteHaving power; active; nimble.

   What! I am rife a little yet.

   1661, John Webster, William Rowley, A Cure for a Cuckold

comparative more rife · superlative most rife

1. Plentifully, abundantly.

   The snowdrops grow rife on the slopes of Mount Pembroke.