RIBBON • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Ribbon

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/rˈɪbən/ Listen

noun

Ribbon n. (Written also riband, ribband)

1.

A fillet or narrow woven fabric, commonly of silk, used for trimming some part of a woman's attire, for badges, and other decorative purposes.

2.

A narrow strip or shred; as, a steel or magnesium ribbon; sails torn to ribbons.

3.

(Shipbuilding) Same as Rib-band.

4.

pl. Driving reins. (Cant)

5.

(Her.) A bearing similar to the bend, but only one eighth as wide.

6.

(Spinning) A silver. Note: The blue ribbon, and The red ribbon, are phrases often used to designate the British orders of the Garter and of the Bath, respectively, the badges of which are suspended by ribbons of these colors. See Blue ribbon, under Blue.

Ribbon fish. (Zool.)

(a)

Any elongated, compressed, ribbon-shaped marine fish of the family Trachypteridae, especially the species of the genus Trachypterus, and the oarfish (Regelecus Banksii) of the North Atlantic, which is sometimes over twenty feet long.

(b)

The hairtail, or bladefish.

(c)

A small compressed marine fish of the genus Cepola, having a long, slender, tapering tail. The European species (Cepola rubescens) is light red throughout. Called also band fish.

Ribbon grass (Bot.), a variety of reed canary grass having the leaves stripped with green and white; called also Lady's garters. See Reed grass, under Reed.

Ribbon seal (Zool.), a North Pacific seal (Histriophoca fasciata). The adult male is dark brown, conspicuously banded and striped with yellowish white.

Ribbon snake (Zool.), a common North American snake (Eutainia saurita). It is conspicuously striped with bright yellow and dark brown.

Ribbon Society, a society in Ireland, founded in the early part of the 19th century in antagonism to the Orangemen. It afterwards became an organization of tennant farmers banded together to prevent eviction by landlords. It took its name from the green ribbon worn by members as a badge.

Ribbon worm. (Zool.)

(a)

A tapeworm.

(b)

A nemertean.

verb

Ribbon v. t. (past & past part. ribboned; pres. part. ribboning) To adorn with, or as with, ribbons; to mark with stripes resembling ribbons.

See images of 'Ribbon'

Etymology of 'Ribbon'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ribbon" Quotes from Famous Books

... women of the region,—mistresses as well as "hired girls,"—a dark-print gown, but, like Ophelia's rue, "it was worn with a difference," fitting her lithe, graceful figure to perfection, and set off by a dainty band of white and knot of ribbon at the throat. ...

— Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 • Various

... brim to one fixed shape, and that none of the handsomest. The wearer is obliged to turn her head full ninety degrees before she can see the person who is standing by her side. But in New York the ladies have the brim of the hat not fettered with wire or tape or ribbon, but quite free and undulating; and by applying the hand to it they can conceal or expose as much of the face as circumstances require. This hiding and exposing of the face, by the by, is certainly a dangerous movement, and often fatal to the passing swain. I am convinced, ...

— Wanderings In South America • Charles Waterton

... on horse and rider emerged out of the wood and the Brussels road stretched out its long straight ribbon before Bobby Clyffurde's dull, ...

— The Bronze Eagle - A Story of the Hundred Days • Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy

... dauntless circle of men that encompassed Coke. None dared confront the Seniors openly, but by headlong rushes at auspicious moments they tried to come to quarters with the rings of dark-browed Sophomores. It was no longer a festival, a game; it was a riot. Coke, wild-eyed, pallid with fury, a ribbon of blood on his chin, swayed in the middle of the mob of his classmates, comrades who waived the ethics of the blow under the circumstance of being obliged as a corps to stand against the scorn of the whole college, as well as ...

— Active Service • Stephen Crane

... asked what Brother Rabbit laughed for, as 'Tildy paused to adjust a flaming red ribbon-bow pinned in ...

— Nights With Uncle Remus - Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation • Joel Chandler Harris

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