Word.ws English Dictionary

ridge

UK/ɹɪd͡ʒ/

ridge noun: the back of any animal; especially the upper or projecting part of the back of a quadruped.

Noun

ridge (plural ridges)

  1. The back of any animal; especially the upper or projecting part of the back of a quadruped.
    • He thought it was no time to ſtay, / And let the Night too ſteal away, / But in a trice advanced the Knight, / Upon the Bare Ridge, Bolt upright, / And groping out for Ralpho’s Jade, / He found the Saddle too was ſtraid[…]1677 (indicated as 1678), [Samuel Butler], “[The Third Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The Third and Last Part. […], London: […] Robert Horne, […], published 1679, →OCLC; republished in...
  2. Any extended protuberance; a projecting line or strip.
    • The plough threw up ridges of earth between the furrows.
    Antonyms:
    groove
  3. The line along which two sloping surfaces meet which diverge towards the ground.
    • mountain ridge
    • It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC
  4. The highest point on a roof, represented by a horizontal line where two roof areas intersect, running the length of the area.
    • Among the domestic animals which may generally be seen in native houses, are gaudy parrots, green, red, and blue, a few domestic fowls, which have baskets hung for them to lay in under the eaves, and who sleep on the ridge, and several half-starved wolfish-looking dogs.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 258
    • Maccario, it was evident, did not care to take the risk of blundering upon a picket, and a man led them by twisting paths until at last the hacienda rose blackly before them. Appleby could see it dimly, a blur of shadowy buildings with the ridge of roof parapet alone cutting hard and sharp against...1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 26, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC
  5. The highest portion of the glacis proceeding from the salient angle of the covered way.
    • the British Guards lie down behind a ridge to avoid the shot and shell from the opposite heights1853-1855, Joachim Hayward Stocqueler, The Life of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington
  6. A chain of mountains.
    • […]Which to maintaine, I would allow him oddes, / And meete him, were I tide to runne afoote, / Euen to the frozen ridges of the Alpes, / Or any other ground inhabitable, / Where euer Engliſhman durſt ſet his foote.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
  7. A chain of hills.
  8. A long narrow elevation on an ocean bottom.
  9. An elongated region of high atmospheric pressure.
    Antonyms:
    trough
  10. (camping) A long tentpole that holds up the ceiling of a tent and is in turn held up by uprights.
    • Coordinate term: upright

Verb

ridge (third-person singular simple present ridges, present participle ridging, simple past and past participle ridged)

  1. (transitive) To form into a ridge.
  2. (intransitive) To extend in ridges.

Proper noun capitalized: Ridge

Ridge (countable and uncountable, plural Ridges)

  1. A village in Hertsmere district, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom.
  2. A toponymic surname from Middle English, named after the natural feature.
  3. A male given name transferred from the surname.

ridge meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

ridge in Hindi

line along which two sloping surfaces meet
कटक kaṭak, डाँग ḍāṅg

ridge in Tamil

முகடு, தொடா குன்று, மலைமுகடு, உச்சிக்கோடு, உச்சிவரி, உச்சிப்பாதை

ridge in Urdu

ریج

ridge in Bengali

সেতুবন্ধ, শৈলশিরা, জাঙ্গাল, শৈলশ্রেণী, পশ্চাত্পৃষ্ঠ, কেদার
More languagesFewer languages
ridge in Telugu
రిడ్జ్
ridge in Malayalam
വാലുക vāluka
ridge in Kannada
ಏಣು, ಮೊಗಡು, ಏಣುಗೆರೆ, ಏರಂಚು
ridge in Punjabi
ਧਾਰ dhār, ਬੰਨਾ bannā
ridge in Gujarati
રીજ
ridge in Odia
ରିଜ୍, ରିଡ୍ଜ୍
ridge in Nepali
डाँडा ḍā̃ḍā
ridge in Tagalog
palupo, palupuhan
ridge in Arabic
سلسلة جبال silsilat jibāl
ridge in Malay
rabung
ridge in Persian
گریوه garive

Examples of ridge in a sentence

  • Climbing up that steep ridge isn't on. We'll have to find another route.
  • The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England.
  • The surface had an irregular, musciform quality, interrupted by various ridges and valleys.

All 40 example sentences with ridge

Antonyms of ridge

Forms of ridge

Noun
pluralridges
alternative form (dialectal)rig
Verb
third-person singular presentridges
present participleridging
past participleridged
pastridged
Proper noun
pluralRidges

Plural of ridge: ridges

Origin of ridge

From Middle English rigge, rygge, (also rig, ryg, rug), from Old English hryċġ (“back, spine, ridge, elevated surface”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrugi, from Proto-Germanic *hrugjaz (“back”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krewk-, *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots rig (“back, spine, ridge”), North Frisian reg (“back”), West Frisian rêch (“back”), Dutch rug (“back, ridge”), German Rücken (“back, ridge”), Swedish rygg (“back, spine, ridge”), Icelandic hryggur (“spine”). Cognate to Albanian kërrus (“to bend one's back”) and kurriz (“back”).

From ridge. Originating from Middle English.

Words formed from ridge

Phrases with ridge

34 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with ridge

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ridge

What does ridge mean?
Ridge means the back of any animal; especially the upper or projecting part of the back of a quadruped.
What is ridge in Hindi?
Ridge in Hindi is कटक (kaṭak), डाँग (ḍāṅg). See Ridge meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is ridge?
Ridge can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ridge?
Ridge is pronounced /ɹɪd͡ʒ/ (UK).
What is the plural of ridge?
The plural of ridge is ridges.

Words near ridge in the dictionary

  1. rideshares
  2. ridesharing
  3. ridesourcing
  4. ridest
  5. rideth
  6. ridge
  7. ridge beam
  8. ridge beams
  9. ridge board
  10. ridge boards
  11. ridge course

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ridge (page history and authors); Ridge (page history and authors); ridge (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ridge (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ridge (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ridge (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); വാലുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ridge (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਧਾਰ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ridge (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ridge (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); डाँडा (Nepali) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ridge.ogg.

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