river

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“

Passing the last outpost on the river, he pushed on, until, finally, he reached his intended winter-quarters on the 1st of November -- not a day too soon, for the river was already being covered with its winter coat of ice.

—The Pioneers

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American Heritage Dictionary (3)

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: a river of tears.
idiom up the river Slang In or into prison.

Century Dictionary (15)

One who rives or splits. An honest block river, with his beetle, heartily calling. J. Echard, Obs. on Ans. to Contempt of Clergy, p. 23. [(Latham.)
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. Some watercourses, however, are called rivers although their beds may be almost, or even entirely, dry during more or less of the year. As water must find its way downward, under the influence of gravity, wherever the opportunity is offered, most rivers reach the ocean, which is the lowest attainable level, either independently or by uniting with some other stream; but this process of joining and becoming merged in another river may be repeated several times before the main stream is finally reached. As a general rule, the river which heads furthest from the sea, or which has the longest course, retains its name, while the affluents entering it lose their identity when merged in the larger stream. There are various exceptions to this, one of the most remarkable of which is the Mississippi, which retains that name to its mouth, although the affluent called the Missouri is much longer than the Mississippi and somewhat larger at the junction. Asia, North America, and South America have “closed basins,” or regions in which the surplus water does not find its way to the sea, for the reason that there evaporation is in excess of precipitation, so that the water cannot accumulate to a height sufficient to allow it to run over at the lowest point in the edge of the basin, and thus reach the sea. The water carried by rivers is rain or melted snow, a part of which runs on the surface to the nearest rivulet while the rain is falling, or immediately after it has fallen, while a larger part consists of that rain-water which, falling upon a permeable material, such as sand and gravel, sinks beneath the surface for a certain distance, and then makes its way to the nearest available river, more or less slowly according to the permeability of the superficial material, the extent to which it is saturated with water, and the nature and position of the impermeable beds, as of clay or crystalline rocks, which may underlie it. Were the surface everywhere entirely impermeable, the rainfall would be carried at once to the nearest rivers, and disastrous freshets would be the rule rather than the exception in regions of large rainfall. It is a matter of great importance that many of the largest rivers head in high mountain regions, where the precipitation is chiefly or entirely in the form of snow, which can melt only gradually, so that disastrous floods are thus prevented, while the winter's precipitation in many regions is stored away for summer's use, extensive tracts being thus made available for habitation which otherwise would be deserts. The size of a river depends chiefly on the orographical features and the amount of rainfall of the region through which it flows. Thus, the Amazon is the largest river in the world because the peculiar topography of South America causes the drainage of a vast region (over a million and a half square miles) to converge toward one central line, and because throughout the whole course of that river and its branches there is a region of very large rainfall. The Orinoco, although draining an area less than one fifth of that of the Amazon, is navigable for fully 1,000 miles, and is, when full, over three miles wide at 560 miles from its mouth, because it drains a region of extraordinarily large precipitation. The Missouri-Mississippi, on the other hand, although draining an area nearly as large as that of the Amazon, is very much inferior to that river in volume at its mouth, because it flows for a considerable part of its course through a region where the precipitation is very small, while it is not extraordinarily large in any part of the Mississippi basin. The area drained by any river is called its basin; but this term is not generally used except with reference to a river of considerable size, and then includes the main river and all its affluents. The edge of a river-basin is the watershed, in the United States frequently called the divide, and this may be a mountain-range or an entirely inconspicuous elevation of the surface. Thus, for a part of the distance, the divide between the Mississippi basin and that of the Great Lakes is quite imperceptible topographically. Exceptionally some large rivers (as the Amazon and Orinoco) inosculate with each other. The river Rhine, it is well known, Doth wash your city of Cologne. Coleridge, Cologne. In speaking of rivers, Americans commonly put the name before the word river, thus: Connecticut river, Charles river, Merrimack river; whereas the English would place the name after it, and say, the river Charles, &c. And when English writers copy from our geographers, they commonly make this alteration, as will be seen by referring to any of the English Gazetteers. Pickering, Vocab.
In law, a stream of flowing water, of greater magnitude than a rivulet or brook. It may be navigable or not; the right to use it may be purely public, or it may be private property; it may arise from streams, or constitute the outlet of a lake; it may be known by the appellation of river or by some other name—these particulars not being material to its legal character as a river. Bishop.

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At this season the river is almost dry; a few slender streams wind in and out of the rough stones which form the river-bed, and at these streams are to be seen hosts of women and children, most busily engaged in washing, and the whole valley by the river is white with the clothes of the numerous visitors, hanging out to bleach and dry in the hot sun. — Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo Comprising a Tour Through North and South Italy and Sicily with a Short Account of Malta
The steam boats cannot run, for the river is almost dry; and I (as well as others) have been detained much longer on the banks of the Ohio than was my intention. — Diary in America, Series One
One doctor would place all his confidence in the spirit of the Banana—the most popular spirit; and another in the spirit of the river, because out of a dozen times that he had implored aid, five “miracles” at least had been vouchsafed, therefore, argued he, the spirit of the river is the true and most powerful god. — Witch-Doctors
There lay the James river, and spreading out between us and the river were the broad fields of wheat; the fine country houses; the long avenues and roads lined with rows of cedar trees; which last were almost in a moment stripped of their branches to make beds for the soldiers There, crowded together, were the immense caravans of wagons, ambulances, guns and pontoons, hugging the river, and the multitude of men swarming over the plain. — Three Years in the Sixth Corps A Concise Narrative of Events in the Army of the Potomac, from 1861 to the Close of the Rebellion, April, 1865
Those in the boats below stood facing the opposite bank of the river, with their arms in their hands It appears that the enemy had come down in great force to attack the boats from that side; and as the river was there very shallow, and the bottom hard, they could, by wading not more than knee-deep, have approached to within five or six yards of them. — Our Sailors Gallant Deeds of the British Navy during Victoria's Reign

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stream · sea · mountain · road · water · valley · island · shore · rock · wave · sky · bank

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river: rivers

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

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

Century Dictionary (2)

from rive + -er.
from Middle English river, rivere (= Dutch rivier, river, = Middle High German rivier, brook, riviere, rivier, revier, district), from Old French riviere, French rivière, a river, stream, = Provencal ribeira, ribayra, shore, bank, plain, river, = Spanish ribera, shore, strand, sea-coast, = Portuguese ribeira, a meadow near the bank of a river (ribeiro, a brook), = Italian riviera, the sea-shore, a bank, also a river, from Middle Latin riparia, a sea-shore or river-bank, a river, feminine of Latin riparius, of or belonging to a bank, from ripa, a bank of a stream (rarely the coast of the sea): see rive. The word river is not connected with the word rivulet.

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/ˈrɪvər/

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