ridge

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A long, narrow strip of high ground, often the top of a row of hills or mountains.

   We hiked along the mountain ridge as the sun set behind the peaks.

2. 2
   noun

   A long raised line or strip on a surface.

   The plough left ridges of earth between the furrows.

3. 3
   noun

   The horizontal line along the very top of a roof, where two sloping sides meet.

   A bird perched on the ridge of the roof.

4. 4
   verb

   To form or mark something with long raised lines.

   Years of hard work had ridged his hands with calluses.

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”).

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