Word.ws English Dictionary

ribbing

/ˈɹɪbɪŋ/

ribbing adjective: jesting; joking. Also the present participle and gerund of rib.

Adjective

ribbing (comparative more ribbing, superlative most ribbing)

  1. jesting; joking

Noun

ribbing (countable and uncountable, plural ribbings)

  1. (uncountable) The action of the verb to rib; teasing.
    • I wish I'd had 30 dollars to lend her, it would have saved me a lot of ribbing at school.1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 114
    • The good-natured ribbing masks some serious points of contention not only within Berlin but also in German society as a whole.2013 January 18, Nicholas Kulish, “Swabian Separatists Fling Spätzle to Make Their Point”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  2. A rib, or the collective ribs, on an object.
    • The decoration found on the stems are perpendicular ribbings, ordinary rounded mouldings, and perpendicular lobings.1919, MacIver Percival, The Glass Collector: A Guide to Old English Glass, page 31
  3. (countable) An instance of teasing.

Also used as

ribbing is also the present participle and gerund of rib.

Examples of ribbing in a sentence

  • His unsuccessful attempt earned him sympathy, condolences, and an occasional good-natured ribbing.
  • When the accounting department's barbershop quartet was warming up, the sales team was ribbing them, yelling, "Don't give up your day job!"
  • But they did not date each other, sparking among friends a lot of ribbing about their nonromance.

All 10 example sentences with ribbing

Forms of ribbing

Adjective
comparativemore ribbing
superlativemost ribbing
Noun
pluralribbings

Origin of ribbing

From rib (“tease”, verb) + -ing; from the common practice of tickling the ribs to cause laughter.

Words formed from ribbing

Words that rhyme with ribbing

Questions about ribbing

What does ribbing mean?
Ribbing means jesting; joking.
What part of speech is ribbing?
Ribbing can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce ribbing?
Ribbing is pronounced /ˈɹɪbɪŋ/.

Words near ribbing in the dictionary

  1. ribbie
  2. ribbier
  3. ribbies
  4. ribbiest
  5. ribbin'
  6. ribbing
  7. ribbingly
  8. ribbings
  9. ribbit
  10. ribbited
  11. ribbiter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ribbing (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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