Word.ws English Dictionary

ribbe

ribbe is the obsolete form of rib.

Meaning of rib

Noun

rib (plural ribs)

  1. Any of a series of long curved bones occurring in 12 pairs in humans and other animals and extending from the spine to or toward the sternum.
    • On an early winter afternoon, clear but not cold, when the vegetable world was a weird multitude of skeletons through whose ribs the sun shone freely, a gleaming landau came to a pause on the crest of a hill in Wessex.1882, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in Two on a Tower. A Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 1
  2. (broadly) A part or piece, similar to a rib, and serving to shape or support something.
    • a broken rib on the umbrella
  3. A cut of meat enclosing one or more rib bones.
  4. Any of several curved members attached to a ship's keel and extending upward and outward to form the framework of the hull.
  5. Any of several transverse pieces that provide an aircraft wing with shape and strength.
  6. A long, narrow, usually arched member projecting from the surface of a structure, especially such a member separating the webs of a vault

See all 21 meanings of rib

Forms of ribbe

pluralribbes

Questions about ribbe

What is ribbe the obsolete form of?
Ribbe is the obsolete form of rib.

Words near ribbe in the dictionary

  1. ribavirin
  2. ribavirins
  3. ribband
  4. ribbandry
  5. ribbands
  6. ribbe
  7. ribbed
  8. ribbed mussel
  9. ribbed mussels
  10. ribbed vault
  11. ribbed vaults

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ribbe (page history and authors); rib (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: “ribbe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ribbe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.