Revised as of
22 Dec 2022
This word confusion of riffle versus rifle in terms of a search has always bugged me.
Riffle and rifle both involve a search, but there’s a difference of intent. The first, riffle, is a look through, flipping through something. In considering that the synonyms include ruffle and shuffle, riffle is definitely more of a “friendly” look-see.
When you consider that one of the definitions of rifle involves theft, it makes sense that rifle is more of a criminal act or search to cause harm or raise alarm. I particularly liked one example from Aces, the society for editing, that copyeditors are likely to rifle through a reference work “to verify a fact or find an earlier use of a word or phrase in order to impose consistency on the text” (Hollandbeck).
My frustration with this is on a line with my annoyance over the usage issues with “Ravage versus Ravish“.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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Riffle | Rifle |
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Part of Grammar: | |
Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: riffles Third person present verb: riffles |
Noun 1; Verb, intransitive 2 & transitive 1, 2, 3 Plural for the noun: rifles Third person present verb: rifles |
Noun: [Usually in singular] A quick or casual leaf or search through something
[Chiefly North American] A rocky or shallow part of a stream or river with rough water
[Mining] The lining of transverse bars or slats on the bed of a sluice, arranged so as to catch heavy minerals, as gold or platinum A hopper for distributing bulk material Verb, intransitive:
Verb, transitive:
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Noun: [Firearms, Gunnery, Ordnance, & Artillery] A gun, especially one fired from shoulder level, having a long spirally grooved barrel intended to make a bullet spin and thereby have greater accuracy over a long distance 1
Verb, intransitive: Verb, transitive: Steal 2
[Adverbial of direction] Hit, throw, or kick (a ball or puck) hard and straight 3 |
Examples: | |
Noun: I just want a quick riffle through the books. The loudest sound was the constant riffle of paper as people looked at the agendas. Faintly, though not frequently, a riffle of doubt perturbs Krugman’s chipmunk paeans to the Clinton Age. The river’s sweeping riffles and deep pools provide a superb habitat for salmon. With Mr Chambers by my side, seemingly unaware of the ordeal ahead, we parked the car and stared out over the arctic water — a slate-grey roiling torrent — without a hint of the alluring eddies and riffles of summer. I peered across the chops and riffles and saw the dark backs and tails of a seething school of redfish. “To recover finer gold more efficiently, it is necessary to direct finer-sized materials into more-shallow riffles” (McCracken). The easiest way to divide bulk materials is to use a riffle sample splitter. There’s actually a formula for riffle shuffling using the Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model (Assaf). To keep games moving along at a brisk pace, blackjack dealers don’t always take the time to perform the seven riffle shuffles necessary to achieve an adequate level of mixing. Verb, intransitive: She riffled through her leather handbag. She riffled through a stack of letters from Eva. I’d sit down with Rick or Barry and make them riffle through the book of their choice. Verb, transitive: He hesitated for a brief moment, then picked up his address book and, riffling worn pages, looked up the numbers of his teammates. There was a slight breeze that riffled her hair. He riffled the deck of cards. He was walking that day, head down, abstracted in his notecards, noticing neither the fineness of the weather, the unevenness of the pavement, or the breeze riffling the surface of the river beneath the bridge. Down below, tiny fiddler crabs raced along the mud, the males each waving an oversized pincer as minnows and larger fish riffled the water’s surface. |
Noun: Several Kalashnikov assault rifles were found at the scene. The new Remington 710 is a moderately priced, entry-level, bolt-action hunting rifle. Imagine firing a high-powered rifle in a mountainous area; people within five kilometers of the shot would hear it. Prussian military rifles first mounted sword bayonets in 1787, and the armies of most other countries followed suit over the following 30 or 40 years. Johnston initially intended to create a black battalion that would include a mobile company comprising Gilmer’s rifles and additional troops. Formed in 2007, the Rifles is an infantry regiment of the British Army. We heard rifle fire off in the distance. Verb, intransitive: I panicked, rifling through my drawers to find matching socks. Verb, transitive: Yes, you can fire lead bullets in the S&W’s conventionally rifled barrel. Every Rossi rifle barrel is button rifled for maximum accuracy. The barrel can be rifled and this rifling causes the projectile to spin, increasing its accuracy. They rifled the house for money. The lieutenant’s servant rifled the dead man’s possessions. Inside the bombed-out palace, troops from Attack Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry, rifled through documents and inventoried the building. He rifled a hard, rising shot from just inside the blue line. Ferguson rifled home his fourth goal of the season. He could rifle that ball to the outside as fast as anybody. |
Derivatives: | |
Adjective: unriffled | Adjective: rifled Noun: rifleman, riflemen, rifler, riflescope, rifling |
Phrasal Verb | |
rifle through | |
History of the Word: | |
Late 18th century in the sense of the shallow part of a stream that creates ripples, perhaps from a variant of the verb ruffle, influenced by ripple. |
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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
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Resources for Riffle versus Rifle
Apple Dictionary.com
Assaf, Sami, Persi Diaconis, and K. Soundararajan. “The Annals of Applied Probability.” 2011. Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Project Euclid. Web. Accessed 15 July 2019. <https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdfview_1/euclid.aoap/1307020385>
The Free Dictionary: rifle
Hollandbeck, Andy. “Are You Rifling or Riffling?” ACES News. 1 January 2019. Web. 11 October 2019. <https://aceseditors.org/news/2019/are-you-rifling-or-riffling”>
McCracken, Dave. “The Size of Riffles, Part 2.” The New 49’ers. n.d. Web. Accessed 15 July 2019. <http://www.goldgold.com/the-size-of-riffles-2.html>
Pinterest Photo Credits:
“Wing Historian Preserves AF Story“, 6 July 2012, article by Robert Goetz, US Air Force photo by Rich McFadden, is courtesy of the Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Public Affairs, and is in the public domain, via the Joint Base San Antonio. “Fish & Wildlife Hunting Seminars” is in the public domain, courtesy of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.
Interesting. The way we were taught, the Intransitive Verb on socks and tapes would still take ‘riffled’. ‘Rifled’ would still be allowed for theft, though.
I suspect it’s a matter of interpretation with riffle as a more casual search while rifling implies more of a panic.
Interesting distinction.
It’s one of those distinctions about English that I adore…all those synonyms with subtle variances.