Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Split; rent or burst asunder.

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

  • p. p. & a. from rive.

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

  • verb Past participle of rive
  • adjective torn apart
  • adjective broken into pieces; split asunder

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English riven, past participle of riven ("to rive").

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Examples

  • He also assumed that the England dressing room was by definition riven with cliques, self-interest and hostility to newcomers.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2011

  • As CEO, Ford was a proponent of fuel-saving and hybrid car technology but struggled to implement that vision or to reform a corporate culture that insiders long described as riven by factions.

    IOL: News 2010

  • The licht o 'the can'le had burned up against it, an' riven't a 'to pieces.

    My Man Sandy J. B. Salmond

  • In the days of the 'last minstrel' it was appropriate to describe this 'riven' relic as 'Newark's stately tower.' line 33.

    Marmion Walter Scott 1801

  • Will - like PeterS, I must query your odd grammar: "With a deeply rived country" presumably you meant "riven".

    The First Post: Latest 2009

  • UK airports yesterday, telling a hearing that the Commission's ruling was "riven" with apparent bias.

    WN.com - Articles related to Second runway ahead as City Airport's owner buys Gatwick for £1.5bn 2009

  • Nearly half 46 percent even said they strongly agreed that America is riven by religion.

    American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

  • This chapter includes evidence that, on its own, may suggest that Americans are riven by religion.

    American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

  • At least in this sense most American communities are not riven by culture wars about the private religiosity of public school teachers.

    American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

  • The idea that standards of politeness are declining in a country riven by antisocial behaviour and rudeness is wrong, according to research to be published by the Young Foundation.

    Rude Britannia is a myth, says report into English manners 2011

Comments

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  • 1 a: to wrench open or tear apart or to pieces : rend b: to split with force or violence

    2 a: to divide into pieces : shatter b: fracture

    intransitive verb: to become split : crack

    January 15, 2009

  • "I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder." -Mahatma Gandhi (An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth)

    March 6, 2009

  • Over on Medieval Occupations they list appear to have found some evidence of a rivener (which is not defined here either). Anyone come across that as an olde occupation?

    February 7, 2012

  • I've seen renter, which is interesting.

    February 7, 2012