Definitions
Etymologies
- Middle English, variant of riban; see ribbon. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I am inclined to think that the event will be that Lord H. will now remain longer than he before proposed, in order that he may not appear to be driven out by clamour, &c. Sir G. Yonge is to have the red riband, which is comical enough.”
“I think you are wrong, notwithstanding, Bluewater, in talking of refusing the riband, which is so justly your due, for a dozen different acts.”
“The Hertfordshire‑based rider emulated Michael Whitaker's success in last year's blue riband event by defeating a top‑class field packed with fellow Olympic contenders.”
“The other, mighty Whistler Mountain, which will hold the blue riband ski race events, is facing foreclosure and the likelihood that it will be auctioned off to the highest bidder as the Olympics are under way.”
“His quote is, of course, from that fine poem The Lost Leader in which Robert Browning decries Wordsworth's desertion of liberal causes and his selling-out to the Tory establishment and values "Just for a handful of silver he left us,/ Just for a riband to stick in his coat...”
The Guardian: Letters: Electoral lessons for the Lib Dems and Labour
“The scope of Wiggins's ambition is illustrated further by him now accepting that the twin peaks of the Tour and the Olympic time trial mean he will almost certainly be forced to relinquish another medal opportunity in the team pursuit – the blue riband event of the track.”
The Guardian: Bradley Wiggins: It's a way of life and you need to buy into it
“This season he has three top-10 finishes and has earned €365,331, with a fifth place in May at Wentworth's PGA Championship, the European Tour's blue riband event, his best result since Turnberry.”
The Guardian: The Open 2010: Mum's the word as Chris Wood prepares to have major say
“The Gold Cup, the blue-riband race at U.K. horse-racing's Cheltenham Festival, features one of the most eagerly anticipated showdowns in its 86-year history Friday when Kauto Star and Denman renew hostilities.”
“• Sharp drop in betting and TV viewing for Epsom Classic • Bookmakers call for blue riband event to move to Friday”
The Guardian: Fears as off-course interest in Derby is unworthy of scintillating Workforce
“There were twenty or thirty at least, bundled up and tied with a riband of watered silk.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘riband’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Bands
band, bands, The Band, Band, rubber band, gum band, Geneva bands, preaching bands, barrister's bands, Band-Aid, wedding band, Citizens' Band and 55 more...
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Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
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My word bucket
The bucket where my words go.
riband, cicerone, phlegmatic, canorous, vicegerent, canting, dilettante, taboret, barouche, precentor, sonant, peregrination and 4 more...
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The Jumblies
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to...sieve, winter, morn, stormy, round, drowned, cried, aloud, button, fig, sea, far and 113 more...
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Wuthering Heights
From Wuthering Heights
sagacity, austere, surmise, corroborating, malignity, ensconing, copious, perforce, obviate, dilapidation, must needs, palaver and 154 more...
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Melville's Letters
Words that appear in American novelist and poet Herman Melville's collected letters.
tragicalness, flummery, bottomed, shanties, brickbat, quizzical, rankly, antipodes, syrenisms, foolscap, riband, blubber and 10 more...
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Amusing words
interesting words
bonce, furcate, tapioca, tillage, desalinate, garish, litmus, roadhog, azoic, haberdasher, imbroglio, polliwog and 802 more...
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Words I wrote down while reading this book
heptarchy, kibe, antiquary, wold, mendacious, vamp, vale, miry, calcareous, cerealia, ostleress, desultory and 105 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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Ulysses
This is a list of the more difficult English words found in James Joyce's Ulysses. It will continually be updated as I read along. The list is in reverse chronological order, meaning that the last ...
equine, untonsured, corpuscle, prelate, parapet, dactyl, jejune, lancet, jalap, barbican, valise, dewsilky and 377 more...
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wilde
prudery, milieu, mephitic, putrefaction, equerry, carnelian, hydropic, antithetical, antinomian, facile, laburnum, tussore and 67 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for riband.
yarb Hardly had they got below, before away went the fore topmast staysail, blown to ribands.
- Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 25 Sep 9, 2008