ribbing

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

• noun Ribs considered as a group.
• noun An arrangement of ribs, as in a boat.
• noun Informal The act or an instance of joking or teasing.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun An assemblage or arrangement of ribs, as timberwork sustaining a vaulted ceiling, ridges on cloth, veins in the leaves of plants, etc.
• noun In agriculture, a kind of imperfect plowing, formerly common, by which stubbles were rapidly turned over, every alternate strip only being moved.

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

• noun An assemblage or arrangement of ribs, as the timberwork for the support of an arch or coved ceiling, the veins in the leaves of some plants, ridges in the fabric of cloth, or the like.

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

• verb Present participle of rib.
• noun uncountable The action of the verb to rib.
• noun uncountable Collectively, the ribs on an object.
• noun countable An instance of teasing.

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

• noun a framework of ribs
• noun the act of harassing someone playfully or maliciously (especially by ridicule); provoking someone with persistent annoyances