Word.ws English Dictionary

riata

/ɹɪˈɑːtə/

riata noun: a lariat or lasso.

Noun

riata (plural riatas)

  1. (US, regional) A lariat or lasso.
    • “You double-crossing devil,” the young man growled. “[…] Hereafter you'll trot ahead of me at the end of a riata, while I keep you on the jump with a four-horse whip. Right now you're scattering my dunnage from hell to breakfast, […]”1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter I, in The Understanding Heart
    • A few blocks from the capitol we stripped him, cut off everything hanging between his legs, then fixed him with a riata and dragged him up and down Congress.2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 429

Forms of riata

pluralriatas
alternative formreata

Origin of riata

From Spanish reata, from reatar (“to retie”). Compare lariat.

Questions about riata

What does riata mean?
Riata means a lariat or lasso.
What part of speech is riata?
Riata is a noun.
How do you pronounce riata?
Riata is pronounced /ɹɪˈɑːtə/.
What is the plural of riata?
The plural of riata is riatas.

Words near riata in the dictionary

  1. riante
  2. riantly
  3. rias
  4. Riases
  5. riat
  6. riata
  7. riatas
  8. riats
  9. Riau
  10. Riau Islands
  11. Riaz

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: riata (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “riata.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/riata. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.