Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large natural stream of water emptying into an ocean, lake, or other body of water and usually fed along its course by converging tributaries.
  • noun A stream or abundant flow.
  • noun The fifth and last of the community cards in Texas hold'em.
  • transitive verb To win a hand in poker by beating (someone) on the basis of the last community card that is turned up.
  • idiom (up the river) In or into prison.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A considerable body of water flowing with a perceptible current in a certain definite course or channel, and usually without cessation during the entire year.
  • noun In law, a stream of flowing water, of greater magnitude than a rivulet or brook.
  • noun A large stream; copious flow; abundance: as, rivers of oil.
  • noun One who rives or splits.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who rives or splits.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To hawk by the side of a river; to fly hawks at river fowl.
  • noun A large stream of water flowing in a bed or channel and emptying into the ocean, a sea, a lake, or another stream; a stream larger than a rivulet or brook.
  • noun Fig.: A large stream; copious flow; abundance.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the hornyhead and allied species of fresh-water fishes.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any species of fresh-water crabs of the genus Thelphusa, as Thelphusa depressa of Southern Europe.
  • noun a crocodile; -- applied by Milton to the king of Egypt.
  • noun a lumberman who drives or conducts logs down rivers.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any species of duck belonging to Anas, Spatula, and allied genera, in which the hind toe is destitute of a membranous lobe, as in the mallard and pintail; -- opposed to sea duck.
  • noun a deity supposed to preside over a river as its tutelary divinity.
  • noun (Zoöl.) an alewife.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The capybara.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the hippopotamus.
  • noun (Zoöl.) an African puff adder (Clotho nasicornis) having a spine on the nose.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a fresh-water, air-breathing mollusk of the genus Ancylus, having a limpet-shaped shell.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the pike.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any species of fresh-water gastropods of Paludina, Melontho, and allied genera. See Pond snail, under Pond.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of numerous fresh-water tortoises inhabiting rivers, especially those of the genus Trionyx and allied genera. See Trionyx.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, ending at an ocean or in an inland sea. Occasionally rivers overflow their banks and cause floods.
  • noun Any large flow of a liquid in a single body (e.g., 'a river of blood').
  • noun poker The last card dealt in a hand.
  • verb poker To improve one’s hand to beat another player on the final card in a poker game.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a large natural stream of water (larger than a creek)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English rivere, from Anglo-Norman, from Vulgar Latin *rīpāria, from Latin, feminine of rīpārius, of a bank, from rīpa, bank.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman rivere, from Old French riviere, from Vulgar Latin *riparia ("riverbank, seashore, river"), from Latin riparius ("of a riverbank"), from riparia ("shore"), from ripa ("river bank"), from Proto-Indo-European *rei- (“to scratch, tear, cut”).

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Examples

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  • My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

    July 19, 2008