Literary notes about rip (AI summary)
Throughout literary works, "rip" wears many hats. In some narratives it serves as a proper name, evoking a rugged or idiosyncratic character as seen in stories where characters like Rip van Winkle embody nostalgia and transformation [1] [2] [3]. At other times, authors employ "rip" as a dynamic verb that connotes violent tearing, whether it’s used literally—with descriptions of fabric, flesh, or objects being torn apart [4] [5] [6]—or metaphorically, to indicate the abrupt disintegration of ideas or old grievances [7] [8] [9]. Equally versatile, the term appears in idiomatic expressions such as “let her rip,” urging action and unrestrained movement [10] or to evoke a sense of energetic adventure [11]. This rich semantic plurality underscores "rip" as a robust literary tool bridging character identity, physical action, and emotional intensity.
- He recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - “Surely,” thought Rip, “I have not slept here all night.”
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - So that when your Epimenides, your somnolent Peter Klaus, since named Rip van Winkle, awakens again, he finds it a changed world.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - She had that cream gown on with the rip she never stitched.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce - He then proceeded to rip open the pillows and bolsters, and took from them some queer conglomerations of feathers.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway - Here is my knife,” throwing it to him; “rip open that bed, and search the straw.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - I will now break into the inner rooms, and rip up the antecedent immediate causes which are there to be found.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Since I wrote last we have had something of each, but it is not genteel to rip up old grievances.
— from The Letters of Jane Austen by Jane Austen - In a word, he did rip up all that could be said that was unworthy, and in the basest terms they could be spoken in.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - Wait is what I say; but when the time comes, why, let her rip!”
— from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson - Shark attacks, giant squid, cannibals, hurricanes, whale hunts, and other rip–roaring adventures erupt almost at random.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne
