ridge

Pluralridges

Formsridges, ridging, ridged

1. 1
   chain of hillsnouncountable

   A chain of mountains or hills.

   The trail follows a ridge of wooded hills for nearly twenty miles.

   Storm clouds gathered over the distant ridges as we reached the pass.

   Similarrange, chain

2. 2
   raised linenouncountable

   A long, raised line or strip that stands out from a surface.

   A sharp ridge runs down the middle of each leaf.

   The plow left long ridges of soil between the rows.

   Similarrib

   Oppositegroove

3. 3
   where slopes meetnouncountable

   The line where two surfaces meet at the top and slope down away from each other, as along a mountain's crest.

   The wind was fiercest on the exposed ridge, where the slopes fell away on both sides.

   Footprints ran along the ridge of the sand dune, where its two faces met.

   Similarcrest

   Note

   What matters here is the line, not the mass beneath it, which a whole chain of hills names instead. The line need not be grand: in Richard Jefferies's The Amateur Poacher (1879), the ridge of a dip in the ground shuts out everything except the roof of the tallest hayrick, so even low farmland has its ridges.

4. 4
   roof topnouncountable

   The horizontal line at the top of a roof where two sloping sides meet, running along its length.

   The roofer replaced the cracked tiles along the ridge before the rainy season.

   A ridge vent lets hot air escape from the attic.

5. 5
   weathernouncountable

   In weather forecasting, a high-pressure area that stretches out in a long band.

   A ridge building over the West will push temperatures well above normal.

   Between the two troughs, a narrow ridge kept skies clear for most of the week.

   Similarhigh

   Oppositetrough

   Note

   On a weather map a ridge shows as isobars bulging outward from a center of high pressure; its opposite is the trough, an elongated low. Air sinks beneath a ridge, so it usually brings settled, dry weather, and one that stalls in place for days can drive a heat wave.

6. 6
   under the seanouncountable

   A long, narrow rise in the floor of the ocean.

   Scientists mapped a ridge running for hundreds of miles along the ocean floor.

   The submarine's sonar picked up a ridge rising steeply from the seabed.

   Note

   Oceanographers carry the land word down to the seabed, and its best-known use is the mid-ocean ridge: an underwater mountain chain where tectonic plates pull apart and new seafloor forms from rising magma. Not every ridge on the ocean floor is one of these; smaller rises in quieter settings take the name too.

7. 7
   make raised linesverbtransitive

   To shape something into a ridge or ridges.

   Potato growers ridge the soil over the rows to keep the tubers covered.

   The tide had ridged the wet sand into long, low bands.

8. 8
   stretch in linesverbintransitive

   To stretch out in a series of ridges.

   Beyond the river, the country ridges northward in long, wooded folds.

   Sand dunes ridge along the coast for several miles.

9. 9
   animal backnouncountable

   The back of any animal, especially the upper, projecting part of a four-legged animal's back.

   The dog's fur stood up along the ridge of its back.

   Fat had built up along the steer's ridge over the summer.

   Note

   The meaning the word began with: Old English hryċġ meant the back or spine, and the ridges of hills, roofs and the sea floor all borrow that picture of a raised spine. On a horse it is the line along the top of the back, and in Samuel Butler's Hudibras a knight whose saddle has strayed ends up "Upon the Bare Ridge, Bolt upright."

10. 10
    nouncountable

    In a fortification, the highest part of the glacis, running out from the projecting angle of the covered way.

    The besiegers pushed their trenches up to the ridge of the glacis before storming the covered way.

    Gunners on the bastion kept the ridge under constant fire so no one could cross it.

    Similarcrest

    Note

    Fortification gives the word one precise line. The glacis is the long earth slope in front of the covered way, and its ridge is the crest running out from the covered way's projecting corner, its salient angle. That crest was the highest ground an attacker had to cross in full view of the guns on the walls.

Showing meanings only. Show all 10