rift
/rɪft
/noun
1A crack, split, or break in something: the wind had torn open a rift in the clouds...
- For some at least, this recognition would produce a psychological rift, a split subjectivity imploding with the violent impact of sameness.
- Savarics Uzumaki finished the staff and opened the dimensional rifts to allow passage into a new home for demons.
- Disagreement over economic policy opened ideological rifts among Iran's ruling elite.
Synonyms
crack, fault, flaw, split, break, breach, fissure, fracture, cleft, crevice, gap, cranny, slit, chink, interstice, cavity, opening, space, hole, aperture
1.1 Geology A major fault separating blocks of the earth’s surface; a rift valley.Extension associated with lengthening of the Himalayan collision orogen is accommodated by small graben and rifts almost at right angles to the strike of the collision zone....
- The major rift eventually developed west of Scotland (present orientation).
- Dextral slip was not responsible for opening most of the rift basins in Thailand.
2A serious break in friendly relations: the rift between the two branches of the legal profession...
- There is a serious rift between the players and the governing body.
- The meeting revealed a serious rift between them that may result in violence.
- News of a rift between the friends is believed to be accurate, with the rumour leaking out at one point last month that the latter had left the company altogether.
Synonyms
breach, division, split;
quarrel, squabble, disagreement, difference of opinion, falling-out, fight, row, altercation, argument, war of words, dispute, conflict, contretemps, clash, wrangle, tussle, feud, battle royal;
estrangement, alienation, schism
informal run-in, spat, scrap
British informal ding-dong, bust-up
verb [no object] chiefly Geology
1Form fissures or breaks, especially through large-scale faulting; move apart: a fragment of continental crust which rifted away from eastern Australia...
- An active origin is suggested because volcanism and uplift appear to have preceded rifting, an active plume passing over a large area.
- By the beginning of the Cretaceous, the supercontinent Pangea was already rifting apart, and by the mid-Cretaceous, it had split into several smaller continents.
- As envisaged by Robertson et al. continental fragments rifted from Gondwana in Triassic time.
1.1 [with object] (usually as adjective rifted) Tear or force (something) apart: the nascent rifted margins of the Red Sea...
- Dismembered counterparts of the Beysehir-Hoyran Nappes further east are restored as a Triassic rifted margin.
- Finally volcanic rocks spread over its surface as the Slave protocontinent was rifted apart about 2.8 billion to 2.7 billion years ago.
- Mid-Cretaceous faulting is observed along the Ran ridge, whereas the axis of the Paleocene rifted zone is shifted slightly further to the west in the Voring margin.
Derivatives
riftless
Origin
Middle English: of Scandinavian origin; compare with Norwegian and Danish rift 'cleft, chink'.