▪ I. ripper
(ˈrɪpə(r))
[f. rip v.2 + -er1. Cf. Fris. ripper a poor knife.]
1. a. One who rips. Chiefly in technical uses.
| 1611 Cotgr., Descouseur, a ripper, vnsower; vndooer of. 1674 Ray Coll. Words, Wirework 133 Then the Rippers take them and draw them into wire through two or three holes. 1833 J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 332 Where the rippers, as the workmen are called, care little about modern improvements. 1852 J. C. Brown tr. Arboussat's Narr. 127 A number of rippers at once cast off their garments, and began by cutting off the head of the animal. 1892 Daily News 8 Mar. 6/1 The ‘ripper’ clears off the roof to a height sufficient for the passage of the horses with their loaded ‘corves’. 1896 in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., Wanted..: good rippers for coppice. 1909 Daily Chron. 20 Aug. 1/1 The theory most generally entertained is that the canister..was left in a coal train in the mine by a ripper or repairer. 1967 Gloss. Mining Terms (B.S.I.) viii. 22 Ripper, a man who rips. 1979 B. Hines Price of Coal 31 Sid and the other rippers stayed on the paddy until it reached the end of the track. |
b. A criminal who rips the bodies of his victims; spec. = Jack the Ripper s.v. Jack n.1 37 Also transf. and Comb. Hence (nonce-wds.) rippeˈrologist, a student of the crimes of Jack the Ripper; rippeˈrology.
| 1890, etc. [see Jack the Ripper s.v. Jack n.1 37]. 1909 J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 209/2 Ripper, daring murderer of women. 1935 Amer. Speech X. 20/1 Ripper. 1. A degenerate who molests, rapes, or mutilates women in parks or other secluded spots; probably from Jack the Ripper. 2. A shrewd or lucky fellow who ‘gets away with murder’. 1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 98 Ripper, one who has a reputation for cutting others with a knife. 1974 A. Douglas Noah's Ark Murders iv. 40 The series of Ripper-like murders that had all but ended his own life. 1974 G. Moffat Corpse Road iii. 41 ‘The Ripper stopped at six [murders].’ ‘Perhaps this one won't stop.’ 1975 D. Rumbelow Compl. Jack the Ripper 5 To..‘Ripperologists’ everywhere—not forgetting Jack who brought us all together. 1977 Guardian Weekly 27 Feb. 20/3 This file-work gives a little more definition to the blurred (and in places bizarrely touched-up) picture of the dark side of late-Victorian high life that has been emerging during our seventies, mostly through the addition of new bits of information to that arcane old science known as Ripperology. 1979 W. J. Fishman Streets of E. London 102/2 It is still debated whether Turner was the first victim [of Jack the Ripper]. Some ‘Ripperologists’ suggest that Polly Nichols was the first. 1979 Guardian 1 June 4/1 The ‘Yorkshire Ripper’..has murdered 11 women in less than four years. 1981 Yorks. Post 8 July 7/1, I don't want people to cash in on what the Ripper did to my daughter. |
2. That which rips; a tool or apparatus intended for ripping; esp. (a) a tool used in removing old slates; (b) a rip-saw; (c) Criminals' slang, a tool for opening safes, etc.
| 1793 O'Keeffe London Hermit ii. v, Tom P. I'll quicken him with a touch of the rippers... (Tom Pranks spurs him.) 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 400 The ripper is formed of iron..with a very thin blade... This tool is used for lifting up and removing the nails out of old slating. 1842 Gwilt Archit. §2115 The half ripper is used also for dividing wood in the direction of the fibres. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1945/2 Ripper, a tool for ripping seams of garments. 1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 43/2 The first process in the preparation of the cloth cases is cutting the millboard. This is now effected by a rotary cutting-machine or ‘ripper’. 1889 Farmer Americanisms 460/1 Ripper or Mason Ripper, (1) a new and ingenious implement of burglary, used in opening safes or vaults with iron surfaces. 1925 Flynn's 14 Mar. 281/1 Ripper, a can-opener (a burglar's tool). 1963 R. I. McDavid Mencken's Amer. Lang. 717 The use of stew is declining, modern heavy gees preferring to use a stick, ripper or can opener on laminated safes. |
| attrib. 1892 Pall Mall G. 4 Apr. 6/3 A huge steel saw that will cut through a nickel-steel armour plate just as easily as an ordinary ripper saw will go through a pine board. |
b. An implement that is attached to a tractor to break up concrete or hard soil.
| 1955 ‘N. Shute’ Requiem for Wren i. 20 This war [against the rabbits] went on continuously with tractor-drawn rippers to destroy the warrens. 1963 Oglesby & Hewes Highway Engin. (ed. 2) xiv. 476 In recent years large rippers mounted on huge crawler tractors..have been used successfully to break up loose or fractured rock. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 2 July 11-c/8 (Advt.), Power Tilt Straight dozer with Ateco swinging swank ripper. 1979 Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. (Advt. Section) 9/2 Teeth for backhoes, loaders, ripper points, corner bits, cutting edges for all makes. |
3. slang. a. A person or thing especially good; spec. an attractive young woman. In recent use, chiefly Austral. slang. Also attrib.
| 1838 Bell's Life 26 Aug. 4/1 One of Mr. Mynn's best balls, technically a ‘ripper’, took the top of the middle stump. 1846 Swell's Night Guide 40 In conjunction with the above is Miss Emma Watling, a regular ripper. 1848 [see creeper 12]. 1848 J. Mitchell in Amer. Speech (1935) X. 41/1 Ripper. anything very large of its kind. [A Nantucketism.] 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 301 Sarah was a cock, sir, and a ripper. 1859 Lang Wand. India 144 ‘But, he is a ripper, nevertheless,’ said the Lieutenant, touching the animal very gently with the whip. 1892 Boyd 25 Yrs. St. Andrews I. ii. 28 When a graduate stated that ‘every lecture was a ripper’, I understood he meant very high praise indeed. 1905 Pall Mall Mag. July 111/1 He had found her a ripper as to looks. 1935 Auden & Isherwood Dog beneath Skin i. ii. 37 What do you think of her? Isn't she a ripper? 1951 E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves x. 182. ‘Good letter, Chips?’ A gurgle. ‘It's a ripper!’ 1969 A. O'Toole Racing Game xviii. 200 ‘Not a bad run,’ I observed... ‘A ripper,’ Badger agreed. 1970 Sunday Truth (Brisbane) 10 May 64 If I'm ever asked what Australia is like, I'll say, ‘She's a bloody ripper, mate!’ 1973 Australian 7 July 16, I love this ripper country. 1976 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 13 Mar. 19/11 Nagle has a fine ear for Australian dialect. The book's a ‘ripper’, as his characters might say. |
b. One who pursues a reckless course.
| 1877 Temple Bar May 109 If the ripper rips for the benefit of his party,..the turning out by no means follows. |
4. U.S. Pol. (See quot. 1937.) Also attrib.
| 1895 Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 1 Apr. 4/2 The Merryman ripper bill looks very much as if the Republicans of this city were going to the legislature for offices. 1937 J. R. Schultz in Amer. Speech XII. 319 The word ‘ripper’ is commonly used in Pennsylvania political parlance to describe a bill that abolishes an office or commission of state or city. Such an act is said usually to have as its purpose the elimination of an officer or member of a commission who is unfriendly to the party in power. |
5. Sc. A simple fishing tackle consisting of ‘a line having attached to it a heavy metal bar fitted with hooks’ (S.N.D.).
| 1925 Glasgow Herald 17 Aug. 7 He..caught a 20 lb. ling with a ripper. c 1930 in Scot. Nat. Dict. (1968) VII. 455/3, I vrocht aa efterneen at the ripper, bit I hid nae luck. 1946 Aberdeen Press & Jrnl. 2 July, The primitive method of fishing with dandy lines, consisting of ripper and hooks. |
▸ Computing. A piece of software for copying data such as audio files from a CD or DVD, or from the web.
| 1989Re: DAT Copy Protection in rec.audio (Usenet newsgroup) 15 Sept. Once that is done, blast a ROM add a little RAM, plop on a crystal stick them in a black box with a 56001 and end up with a relatively inexpensive copy-bit ripper. 1990 Amiga Computing Dec. 122/2 Have you tried one of the public domain music rippers with only limited success? 1997 EE Times 21 July 1/4 MP3 players, encoders and ‘rippers’—programs for snatching a digital audio stream from a PC-based CD audio player—are readily available. 2000 Austral. Personal Computer May 70/2 The MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 (or MP3) codec in a standard MP3 ripper strips out everything in a WAV file that the human ear cannot hear. |
▪ II. ripper
obs. or dial. f. reaper; var. rippier.