Definify.com

Definition 2025

reißen

reißen

See also: reissen

German

Alternative forms

Verb

reißen ‎(class 1 strong, third-person singular simple present reißt, past tense riss, past participle gerissen, past subjunctive risse, auxiliary haben or sein)

  1. (transitive, auxiliary: “haben”) to tear (something); to pull (something) apart
    • 1918, Elisabeth von Heyking, Aus dem Lande der Ostseeritter, in Zwei Erzählungen, Phillipp Reclam jun., page 100:
      Es war als rängen beständig zwei Mächte um sie, als würde sie wehrlos von ihnen hin und her gerissen.
      It was as if two powers struggled over her continuously, as if she was torn to and fro by them defenselessly.
  2. (intransitive, auxiliary: “sein”) to break; to become torn apart
  3. (transitive, auxiliary: “haben”) to snatch; to wrench; to yank; to drag; to tug; to pull on (something)

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

Etymology

Middle High German rizen, from Old High German rīzan ‎(“to scratch”). From a merger of two similar verbs:

Cognate with English rat ‎(“to rip up, tear, rend”), Dutch rijten ‎(“to rip up, tear, rend”), Low German riten ‎(“to rip, tear, rend”), Luxembourgish räissen ‎(“to scratch, tear, rip apart”), Saterland Frisian riete ‎(“to rip, tear”).

Compare also Dutch wrijten ‎(“to argue, quarrel”), English write ‎(“to inscribe, engrave, imprint”), Swedish rita ‎(“to draw, design, delineate, model”), Icelandic ríta ‎(“to cut, scratch, write”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈʀaɪ̯sn̩/, /ˈʀaɪ̯sən/

Similar Results