rip off

Formsrips off, ripping off, ripped off

1. 1
   phrasal verbslangtransitive

   To cheat or swindle someone, especially by charging a price that is far too high or unfair.

   Drivers who rip off tourists can lose their taxi licenses.

   The repair shop ripped off dozens of customers with charges for work it never did.

   Similarcheat, swindle, fleece, overcharge, con

   Note

   The slang verb is separable: a noun object can follow off or sit between the two words (rip off tourists, rip tourists off), but a pronoun must go in the middle, so they ripped us off, never ripped off us. The passive is common, above all in feel ripped off, the complaint of anyone who suspects they have paid too much.

2. 2
   noun · rip-offcountable

   A bad deal; a price or rate that is unfair or far too high.

   The airport charges twelve dollars for a sandwich, which is a total rip-off.

   Shoppers who compare plans often find that the extended warranties are rip-offs.

   Similarswindle, con

   Oppositebargain, steal

   Note

   The noun is written with a hyphen while the verb stays open: they rip you off, and the result is a rip-off. It often comes as an exclamation, What a rip-off! Its opposites are a bargain, good value, or, curiously, a steal: in shopping talk a steal is the price that favors the buyer, a rip-off the one that robs them.

3. 3
   noun · rip-offcountable

   A copy of something, especially one that is illegal or of poor quality.

   The handbag looked like a designer piece, but it was a cheap rip-off sold on the street.

   Critics dismissed the movie as a shameless rip-off of a much better thriller.

   Similarknockoff

   Oppositeoriginal

   Note

   Cheap is this noun's natural partner, as in a cheap rip-off of a real Rolex, and the word is nearly always a put-down. Its near synonym is knockoff, but rip-off keeps the sting of theft from its verb, the suggestion that someone took what was not theirs to take.

4. 4
   phrasal verbslangtransitive

   To copy something, especially illegally or without permission.

   The startup ripped off its rival's design almost line for line.

   Young bands often rip off the riffs of the guitarists they admire.

   Similarcopy, plagiarize, crib

   Note

   Copying in this sense can target the work or the person behind it: a film rips off a scene, or one artist rips off another, as Nick Cave sings in "Higgs Boson Blues" (2013), unsure which party will end up robbing the other. The word carries a charge of theft that borrow or imitate do not, and what it produces is a rip-off.

5. 5
   phrasal verbtransitive

   To pull something off by ripping or tearing it away.

   The nurse told him to rip off the bandage in one quick pull.

   The storm ripped off part of the barn roof and scattered the shingles.

6. 6
   noun · rip-offcountable

   A scam: a dishonest scheme for cheating people.

   The free-cruise phone call turned out to be a rip-off designed to collect credit card numbers.

   The investment club was a rip-off from the start, and its organizers vanished with the money.

   Similarscam, swindle, con, fraud, racket

7. 7
   phrasal verbslangtransitive

   To steal.

   Somebody ripped off my bike while I was inside buying groceries.

   The burglars managed to rip off two laptops and a television before the alarm went off.

   Similarsteal, swipe, pinch, nick

   Note

   The object changes from person to thing here: what is ripped off is the loot, and the owner or the place comes in with from, as in ripped it off from a hometown bookstore. In the "cheat" meaning the object is the person who loses out, so ripped off the tourists and ripped off a camera point to different wrongs.

8. 8
   noun · rip-offcountable

   A theft or robbery.

   Police suspect the jewelry store rip-off was an inside job.

   Nobody was hurt in the rip-off, but the thieves got away with the night's cash.

   Similartheft, robbery, heist

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