verb (used with or without object), rif·fled, rif·fling.
- to turn hastily; flutter and shift: to riffle a stack of letters; to riffle through a book.
- Cards. to shuffle by dividing the deck in two, raising the corners slightly, and allowing them to fall alternately together.
- to cause or become a riffle.
noun
- a rapid, as in a stream.
- a ripple, as upon the surface of 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.
- the act or method of riffling cards.
verb
- (when intr , often foll by through) to flick rapidly through (the pages of a book, magazine, etc), esp in a desultory manner
- to shuffle (playing cards) by halving the pack and flicking the adjacent corners together
- to make or become a riffle
noun
- US and Canadian
- a rapid in a stream
- a rocky shoal causing a rapid
- a ripple on water
- mining a contrivance on the bottom of a sluice, containing transverse grooves for trapping particles of gold
- the act or an instance of riffling
1754, “to make choppy water,” American English, perhaps a variant of ruffle “make rough.” The word meaning “shuffle” (cards) is first recorded 1894, probably echoic; hence that of “skim, leaf through quickly” (of papers, etc.) is from 1922. Related: Riffled; riffling.