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.
- 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 . - intransitive verb obsolete To hawk by the side of a river; to fly hawks at river fowl.
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 theirbanks and causefloods . - noun Any large flow of a
liquid in a single body (e.g., 'a river of blood'). - noun poker The last card
dealt in ahand . - 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
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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While this may have been true for the cases of the three earliest civilizations, further study of early Chinese civilization shows that irrigation-based agriculture did not play a major role in developing hierarchical institutions, and the absence of major river valleys in Mesoamerica and the region of the Andes civilization brought an end to the old river valley theory of the origins of civilization.
d. Comparisons 2001
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_Mississippi_ is a proper noun, because it is the name of an individual river; but _river_ is a common noun, because it is the name of a _species_ of things, and the name _river_ is common to _all_ rivers.
English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Samuel Kirkham
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I spent most _on the river and in the river_ of the time I stayed there.
Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition Brainerd Kellogg
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At the time of the first occupation of this region by parties engaged in the fur-trade, a small party of men, under the command of ----- Reid, constituting all the garrison of a small fort on this river, were surprised and massacred by the Indians; and to this event the stream owes its occasional name of _Reid's river_.
The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California To which is Added a Description of the Physical Geography of California, with Recent Notices of the Gold Region from the Latest and Most Authentic Sources Brevet Col. J.C. Fremont 1851
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When traveling with a boat as light as a canoe, which may easily be carried on the shoulders of the Indians, this is much the better side of the river for the portage, as the ground here is very good and level, being a handsome bottom, which I remarked was covered (_as was now always the case along the river_) with a growth of green and fresh - looking grass.
The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California To which is Added a Description of the Physical Geography of California, with Recent Notices of the Gold Region from the Latest and Most Authentic Sources Brevet Col. J.C. Fremont 1851
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Arriving at the confluence with the Columbia, of the river whose banks they were following, they perceived that it was the same which had been called _Lewis river_, by the American captain of that name, in
Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific Gabriel Franchere 1824
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May, they reached the mouth of a river, which; from the unusual number of porcupines that were seen near it, they called _Porcupine river_.
Travels in North America, From Modern Writers With Remarks and Observations; Exhibiting a Connected View of the Geography and Present State of that Quarter of the Globe William Bingley 1798
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The main river is the Magdalena, but others of importance are the Cauca, Nechí, San Jorge, Sinú, and Atrato.
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Since their larvae are aquatic, black flies tend to stay around water, and the disease has thus earned the name river blindness.
Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009
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Since their larvae are aquatic, black flies tend to stay around water, and the disease has thus earned the name river blindness.
Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009
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Next, three cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table (the ‘flop’), then another card (the ‘turn’) and a final one (the ‘river’); there is a round of betting at each stage.
Paul Myerscough · Diary: Confessions of a Poker Player · LRB 29 January 2009 Paul Myerscough 2019
brtom commented on the word river
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