rig

/ɹɪɡ/

rig noun: the rigging of a sailing ship or other such craft.

Noun (1)

rig (plural rigs)

The rigging of a sailing ship or other such craft.
Special equipment or gear used for a particular purpose.
- The climbers each had a different rig for climbing that particular rockface.
- We used a ground-level rig to safely learn how to tile a gable roof.
(US) A large truck, especially a semi-trailer truck.
- Every rig at the truckstop had custom-made mud-flaps.
- "Big Joe's the name," an' I told him mine / He said: "The name of my rig is Phantom 309."1967, Tommy Faile, “Phantom 309”, performed by Red Sovine
The special apparatus used for drilling wells.
(informal) A costume or an outfit.
- My sister and I always made our own rigs for Halloween.
(slang) A personal computer, typically one modified for looks.
- When I saw a special version of Quake running on Voodoo hardware, I knew I would be forking out quite a bit of money on my gaming rig.2004, Radford Castro, Let Me Play: Stories of Gaming and Emulation, page 104
An imperfectly castrated horse, sheep etc.
(slang) Radio equipment, especially a citizen's band transceiver.
(slang) Equipment used for taking recreational drugs.
- […] does not know how to pick up the liquid from the cooker, and he asks someone else to use his rig to put his part in his rig.1995, Reyes Ramos, An Ethnographic Study of Heroin Abuse by Mexican Americans in San Antonio, Texas, page 36
- (Gregg later admitted Cher's inadvertent discovery of his “rig” [drug bag] complete with heroin, needles, and rubber bands, hastened their breakup.)2014, Josiah Howard, Cher: Strong Enough
(animation) A model outfitted with parameterized controls for animation.
- As for the facial stuff, I just didn't have the time to do a really good facial rig and just worked with the one I had, which was insufficiently flexible to accomplish what needed to be done.2002 September 20, Steph Greenberg, “Re: CG Mickey Test”, in rec.arts.animation (Usenet), message-ID <Xns928EB617492BStephG@130.133.1.4>
- As facial models become more and more complex, it is increasingly difficult to define a consistent rig that can work well for every possible movement.2012, Verónica Orvalho, Pedro Bastos, Frederic Parke, Bruno Oliveira, Xenxo Alvarez, “A Facial Rigging Survey: State of the Art Report”, in EUROGRAPHICS

Verb (1)

rig (third-person singular simple present rigs, present participle rigging, simple past and past participle rigged)

(transitive) To equip and fit (a ship) with sails, shrouds, and yards.
(transitive) To move (a heavy object) with the help of slings, hoists, block and tackle, levers, or similar equipment.
- To rig such massive equipment requires experienced riggers
(informal, transitive) To dress or clothe in some costume.
(transitive) To make or construct something in haste or in a makeshift manner.
- rig up a makeshift shelter
(transitive) To manipulate something dishonestly for personal gain or discriminatory purposes.
- to rig an election
- Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult.[…]Governments have to find the best people to fill important jobs: there is a limited supply of people who understand the financial system, for example. But governments must also remember that businesses are...2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
Synonyms:

swing
(obsolete, transitive) To make free with; hence, to steal; to pilfer.
- Sir Hew is a rigging thy gate or the plow1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […]...
(intransitive, transitive, animation) To outfit a model with controls for animation.
- We can think of rigging a 3D character as a process analogous to setting up the strings that control a puppet.2012, Verónica Orvalho, Pedro Bastos, Frederic Parke, Bruno Oliveira, Xenxo Alvarez, “A Facial Rigging Survey: State of the Art Report”, in EUROGRAPHICS

Noun (2)

rig (plural rigs)

(Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) A ridge.

Noun (3)

rig (plural rigs)

(obsolete) A wanton person; one given to unbecoming conduct.
- Let none condemn them [girls] for Rigs, becauſe thus hoiting vvith boys, ſeeing the ſimplicity of their age vvas a Patent to priviledge any innocent paſtime, and fevv mo[r]e years vvill make them bluſh themſelves into better manners.1650, Thomas Fuller, “Of the Clothes and Ornaments of the Jews”, in A Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testament Acted thereon, London: […] J....
A promiscuous woman.
- However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep...1936, Anthony Bertram, Like the Phoenix
(obsolete) A sportive or unbecoming trick; a frolic.
- Away went Gilpin neck or nought, / Away went hat and wig, / He little dreamt when he ſet out / Of running ſuch a rig.1782, William Cowper, “The Diverting History of John Gilpin, […]”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], published 1785, →OCLC, page 349
(obsolete) A blast of wind.
- This ſanguine little king's-fiſher (not preſcient of the ſtorm, as by his inſtinct he ought to be) appearing at that uncertain ſeaſon, before the riggs of Old Michaelmas were yet well compoſed, and when the inclement ſtorms of winter were approaching, began to flicker over the ſeas and was buſy in...1797, Edmund Burke, “Letter III.”, in A Third Letter to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France, London: […] F[rancis] and C[harles]...

Verb (2)

rig (third-person singular simple present rigs, present participle rigging, simple past and past participle rigged)

(intransitive, obsolete) To play the wanton; to act in an unbecoming manner; to play tricks.
- Rigging and rifling all ways, and no noise / Made with thy soft feet, where it all destroys.1616, George Chapman, The Hymn to Hermes, in The Whole Works of Homer (tr.)
Synonyms:

harlotize

Noun (4)

rig (plural rigs)

(ring theory) An algebraic structure similar to a ring, but without the requirement that every element have an additive inverse.
- The set of natural numbers N with the usual operations of addition and multiplication is a rig, but not a ring. The set of integers Z is a ring. For a rig/ring (R,0,+,1,−), the set of polynomials R[x] on a generator x with the usual operations of addition and multiplication is also a rig/ring.2004, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, volume 39, ACM Press, page 81
- It follows that for each object A its endomorphisms End_C(A) = C(A,A) has the structure of what is now called a rig, that is to say a (commutative) ring without negatives.2004, Jerzy Marcinkowski (editor), Computer Science Logic: 18th International Workshop, CSL 2004, Proceedings, Springer, LNCS 3210, page 17
Synonyms:

semiring

Noun (5) capitalized: RIG

RIG (plural RIGs)

(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of rapid intervention group.

rig meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

rig in Urdu

to manipulate something dishonestly: دھاندلی کرنا dhāndlī karnā

rig in Bengali

রিগ, ঋগ, রিগ করতে

More languagesFewer languages

rig in Telugu: రిగ్
rig in Malayalam: റിഗ്, രിഗ്
rig in Kannada: ರಿಗ್, ರಿಗ್ ಮಾಡಲು
rig in Punjabi: ਰਿਗ, ਰਿਗ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਰਿੱਗ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
rig in Gujarati: રિગ કરવા માટે
rig in Odia: ରିଗ୍, ରିଗ, ରିଗ୍ କରିବାକୁ
rig in Nepali: रिग, ऋग, रीग
rig in Vietnamese: giàn khoan, nhà giàn, gian lận, lừa đảo

Examples of rig in a sentence

He used to be gone a lot of the time, off working on an oil rig.
The workers stopped the rig on an incline and scotched the wheels.
Driving on the interstate at night, you will see less traffic, but more big rigs.

All 40 example sentences with rig

Synonyms of rig

Forms of rig

Noun
plural	rigs
plural	RIGs
Verb
third-person singular present	rigs
present participle	rigging
past participle	rigged
past	rigged

Past tense of rig: rigged

Plural of rig: rigs

Origin of rig

From Early Modern English rygge, probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian rigge (“to bind up; wrap around; rig; equip”), Swedish dialectal rigga (“to rig a horse”), Faroese rigga (“to rig; to equip and fit; to make s.th. function”). Possibly from Proto-Germanic *rik- (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European *rign-, *reyg- (“to bind”); or related to Old English *wrīhan, wrīohan, wrēohan, wrēon (“to bind; wrap up; cover”). See also wry (“to cover; clothe; dress; hide”).

See ridge.

Compare wriggle.

Words formed from rig

Phrases with rig

Words that rhyme with rig

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rig

What does rig mean?: Rig means the rigging of a sailing ship or other such craft.
What is rig in Hindi?: Rig in Hindi is रिग. See Rig meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is rig?: Rig can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce rig?: Rig is pronounced /ɹɪɡ/.
What is the plural of rig?: The plural of rig is rigs.

Words near rig in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-rig.ogg.

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

Noun (1)

Verb (1)

Noun (2)

Noun (3)

Verb (2)

Noun (4)

Noun (5) capitalized: RIG

rig meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

rig in Hindi

rig in Marathi

rig in Urdu

rig in Bengali

Examples of rig in a sentence

Synonyms of rig

Forms of rig

Origin of rig

Words formed from rig

Phrases with rig

Words that rhyme with rig

Questions about rig

Words near rig in the dictionary

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