# riff
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɹɪf/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪf
* Homophone: Rif

### Etymology 1

Uncertain. Perhaps a clipping of riffle, or an alteration of refrain.

#### Noun

riff (plural riffs)
* A repeated instrumental melody line in a song.
    Listen to one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time!
** 2009 November 27, “Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has 'best guitar riff'”, in BBC‎:Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has been named the greatest guitar riff of all time, 41 years after it was recorded, in a poll by website Music Radar.
* A clever or witty remark.
** 2015 September 27, “Pope Francis delivers off-the-cuff riff on family life”, in USA Today‎:Pope Francis delivers off-the-cuff riff on family life
* A variation on something.
** 2012, The Economist, London Skyline: Tower Power‎:Both the Orbit and the Pinnacle are riffs on an idea sketched out in 1917 by Vladimir Tatlin for a monument to international communism.
* A spoof.
** 2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 7 December 2017:The creative team has experience with spoofing: Both [Paul] Rudd and [Amy] Poehler had parts in [David] Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer, a hysterically irreverent riff on ’80s summer-camp comedies.

##### Translations
#### Verb

riff (third-person singular simple present riffs, present participle riffing, simple past and past participle riffed)
* To improvise in the performance or practice of an art, especially by expanding on or making novel use of traditional themes.
** 2006, Janet Tashjian, Fault Line: A Novel, →ISBN:She riffed on the Olympic judges, the bobsled team, then ad-libbed with a woman drinking a martini at the front table.
** 2011, Edward Glaeser, Triumph of the City, →ISBN:They were great architects deeply enmeshed in an urban chain of innovation; Wright riffed on Sullivan's idea of form following function, and Sullivan riffed on Jenney, and Jenney relied on the fireproofing innovations of Peter B. Wight.
** 2014, Johann P. Arnason, Religion and Politics: European and Global Perspectives, →ISBN, page 59:For Holyoake a strategic advantage of his newly coined label was the way it riffed on the term 'secular' in the Western Christian imaginary.
** 2014, Edward Stewart, Privileged Lives, →ISBN:He riffed an upward arpeggio and in a smooth, slightly neutered baritone began singing “Baby Face.”
** 2018 November 14, Jesse Hassenger, “Disney Goes Viral with an Ambitious, Overstuffed Wreck-It Ralph Sequel”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 21 November 2019:In particular, Ralph Breaks The Internet riffs a lot on its enormous parent company, from that princess bit to the Sterling Holloway tone that new good-luck charm Alan Tudyk brings to his vocal performance to a goof on the de facto parenting advice that’s at the heart of so many Pixar movies.
* To riffle.
** 2010, Michael Flynn, In the Country of the Blind, →ISBN:He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a wellworn deck of cards. He hated Saturday duty. He cut the deck and riffed the two halves together.
** 2012, Jane Roberts, Triple Challenge: '69 to '70, →ISBN, page 173:He was gracious enough to thank her, and briefly riffed through the pages before putting it in his briefcase.
** 2014, Miles Swarthout, The Last Shootist, →ISBN:The man reached inside a pocket of the black broadcloth coat he'd draped over the back of his chair and withdrew a deck of cards, which he fanned in one hand, then bent back and riffed rapidly into the palm of his other.
* To tell jokes over a movie or similar performance.
    Synonym: MST
** 2014 January 10, Robert G. Weiner, Shelley E. Barba, In the Peanut Gallery with Mystery Science Theater 3000: Essays on Film, Fandom, Technology and the Culture of Riffing, McFarland, →ISBN, page 126:Most MSTers confine their "riffing" to original fan fiction rather than scripts from corporate-owned entertainment properties, which renders such twice-removed MSTing somewhat toothless: the cannibalizing parody of a pastiche.
** 2015 January 27, Chris Morgan, The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Twelve Classic Episodes and the Movies They Lampoon, McFarland, →ISBN, page 34:A bad sci-fi movie is often ludicrous and silly and ripe for riffing. A bad comedy is usually just dull.

### Etymology 2

From Middle English *rif (found only in midrif), from Old English hrif (“the belly; womb”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrif, from Proto-Germanic *hrefaz (“body; torso; belly”), from Proto-Indo-European *krep- (“body”). Distant doublet of corpus, corpse, and corse.

#### Noun

riff (plural riffs)
* (anatomy, archaic) The belly; the bowels.

##### Derived terms

* midriff

### See also

* riff-raff
* riffraff

## Dutch
### Etymology

Borrowed from English riff.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /rɪf/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: riff
* Rhymes: -ɪf
* Homophone: rif

### Noun

riff m (plural riffs, diminutive riffje n)
* (music) riff

#### Derived terms

* gitaarriff

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from English riff.

### Noun

riff m (plural riffs)
* (music) riff

## Italian
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English riff.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈrif/
* Rhymes: -if
* Hyphenation: rìff

### Noun

riff m
* (music, neologism, chiefly in translations from English) riff
    Synonym: ritornello

## Spanish
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English riff.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈrif/ [ˈrif]
* Rhymes: -if
* Syllabification: riff

### Noun

riff m (plural riffs)
* (music) riff

#### Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.