Chapter Richarda to Right as a Trivet of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Kent was divided into laths, Sussex into rapes, Lincoln into parts. The person who presided over a trithing was called the trithing-man; he who presided in the lath was called a lath-grieve.

Ridolphus (in Jerusalem Delivered). One of the band of adventurers that joined the Crusaders. He was slain by Argantes (bk. vii.).

Ridotto (Italian). An assembly where the company is first entertained to music, and then joins in dancing. The word originally meant music reduced to a full score. (Latin, reductus.)

Rienzi (Nicolò Gabrini). The Reformer at Rome (1313-1354). Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton) has a novel called Rienzi, and Wagner an opera.

Rif or Rifle (French). Avoir rifle et rafle. To have everything. Also, the negative, N'avoir ni rif ni raf (to have nothing).

“Helas! j'ai goute miseraigne,
J'ai rifle et rafle, et roigne et taigne.”
Les Miracles de Ste. Geneviève

Riff- raff The offscouring of society, or rather, “refuse and sweepings.” Rief is Anglo-Saxon, and means a rag; Raff is also Anglo-Saxon, and means sweepings. (Danish, rips-raps.) The French have the expression “Avoir rifle et rafle,” meaning to have everything; whence radoux (one who has everything), and the phrase “Il n'a laissé ni rif ni raf” (he has left nothing behind him).

“I have neither ryff nor ruff [rag to cover me nor roof over my head].”- Sharp: Coventry Myst., p. 224.

“Ilka man agayne his gud he gaffe
That he had tane with ryfe and raffe.
Quoted by Halliwell in his Archaic Dictionary.

Rifle is from the German reifeln (to hollow into tubes). In 1851 the French minié rifle was partially supplied to the British army. In 1853 it was superseded by the Enfield rifle, which has three grooves. Sir William Armstrong's gun, which has numerous small sharp grooves, was adopted by the government in 1859. The Whitworth gun has a polygonal bore, with a twist towards the muzzle. (“Rifle” is Norwegian for a groove or flute.
    Rifles are either “breech-loaders” or “magazine rifles”. Breech- loading rifles load at the breech instead of at the muzzle; magazine rifles are those which contain a chamber with extra cartridges.
   The chief breech-loading rifles are the Ballard, the Berdan, the Chaffee, the Chassepot (a French needle-gun, 1870-1871), the Flobert-Gras (an improved Chassepot, 1874-1880), the Greene, the Hall, the Minie-Henry (Great Britain, 1890), the Maxim, the Magnard, the Minie, the Morgensten, the Peabody, the Peabody-Martini (Turkey), the Scott, the Sharp, the Springfield (United States, 1893), the Werder (Bavaria), the Werndi, the Whittemore, the Westley-Richards, and the Winchester.
    The magazine or repeating-rifles are also very numerous. The best known to the general public are Colt's revolver and the Winchester repeating-rifle of 1892. They are of three classes: (1) those in which the magazine is in the stock; (2) those in which the magazine is a tube parallel with the barrel (as in Colt's revolver); and (3) those in which the magazine is either a fixed or detachable box near, the lock. The once famous Enfield rifle was loaded at the muzzle. In Spencer's rifle the magazine was in the stock.

Rift in the Lute (A). A small defect which mars the general result.

“Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.
It is the little rift within the lute
That by-and-by will make the music mute,
And eyer widening, slowly silence all.”
Tennyson: Merlin and Vivien; Vivien's Song,
verses 1, 2.

Rig A piece of fun, a practical joke. The Scotch say of a man who indulges in intoxication, “He goes the rig.” The same word is applied in Scotland to a certain portion or division of a field. A wanton used to be called a rig. (French, se rigoler, to make merry.)

“He little thought when he set out
Of running such a rig.”
Cowper: John Gilpin.

   Rig. To dress; whence rigged out, to rig oneself, to rig a ship, well-rigged, etc. (Anglo-Saxon, wrigan, to dress; hraegl, a garment.)

“Jack was rigged out in his gold and silver lace, with a feather in his cap.”- L'Estrange.

Rig-Marie Base coin. The word originated from one of the billon coins struck in the reign of Queen Mary, which bore