Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a person or thing that rips.
- Also ripper bill, ripper act. a legislative bill or act for taking powers of appointment to and removal from office away from the usual holders of these powers and conferring them unrestrictedly on a chief executive, as a governor or mayor, or on a board of officials.
- a double-ripper.
- a killer who dispatches and often mutilates victims with a knife or similar weapon.
- Mining. a hooklike tool, attached to earth-moving machinery, for tearing away ore, rock, etc.
- Chiefly British Slang. something especially strong, fine, or good of its kind.
noun
- a person who rips
- a murderer who dissects or mutilates his victims’ bodies
- informal, mainly Australian and NZ a fine or excellent person or thing
1610s, agent noun from rip (v.). Meaning “killer who mutilates his victims” (1890) is from Jack the Ripper, notorious London murderer, whose nickname contains a pun on ripper in sense of “tool for ripping” old slates, etc. (1823) and the slang meaning “excellent person or thing, a ‘ripping’ fellow” (1838), from ripping “excellent, splendid.”