riffing

Verb

riff (third-person singular simple present riffs, present participle riffing, simple past and past participle riffed)

1. To improvise in the performance or practice of an art, especially by expanding on or making novel use of traditional themes.
   • She riffed on the Olympic judges, the bobsled team, then ad-libbed with a woman drinking a martini at the front table.2006, Janet Tashjian, Fault Line: A Novel, →ISBN
2. To riffle.
   • He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a wellworn deck of cards. He hated Saturday duty. He cut the deck and riffed the two halves together.2010, Michael Flynn, In the Country of the Blind, →ISBN
3. To tell jokes over a movie or similar performance.
   • Most MSTers confine their "riffing" to original fan fiction rather than scripts from corporate-owned entertainment properties, which renders such twice-removed MSTing somewhat toothless: the cannibalizing parody of a pastiche.2014 January 10, Robert G. Weiner, Shelley E. Barba, In the Peanut Gallery with Mystery Science Theater 3000: Essays on Film, Fandom, Technology and the Culture of Riffing, McFarland, →ISBN, page 126

   Synonyms:

   MST

See all 8 meanings of riff