rift

rift
    n 1: a gap between cloud masses; "the sun shone through a rift
         in the clouds"
    2: a narrow fissure in rock
    3: a personal or social separation (as between opposing
       factions); "they hoped to avoid a break in relations" [syn:
       {rupture}, {breach}, {break}, {severance}, {rift}, {falling
       out}]
    

Rift \Rift\, n. [Written also {reft}.] [Dan. rift, fr. rieve to
   rend. See {Rive}.]
   1. An opening made by riving or splitting; a cleft; a
      fissure. --Spenser.
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   2. A shallow place in a stream; a ford.
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Rift \Rift\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Rifted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Rifting}.]
   To cleave; to rive; to split; as, to rift an oak or a rock;
   to rift the clouds. --Longfellow.
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         To dwell these rifted rocks between.     --Wordsworth.
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Rift \Rift\, v. i.
   1. To burst open; to split. --Shak.
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            Timber . . . not apt to rif with ordnance. --Bacon.
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   2. To belch. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]
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Rift \Rift\, obs.
   p. p. of {Rive}. --Spenser.
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209 Moby Thesaurus words for "rift":
      abysm, abyss, alienation, arroyo, birthmark, blackhead, bleb,
      blemish, blister, box canyon, breach, breach of friendship, break,
      breakage, broach, bug, bulla, burst, canyon, catch, cavity, chap,
      chasm, check, chimney, chink, chinky, chip, cicatrix, cleavage,
      cleave, cleft, cleuch, clough, cloven, col, comedo, conflict,
      coulee, couloir, crack, cracked, cranny, crater, craze, crevasse,
      crevice, cut, cut open, cwm, defacement, defect, defection,
      deficiency, defile, deformation, deformity, dehiscent, dell,
      difference, dike, disaffection, disagreement, disfavor,
      disfiguration, disfigurement, dispart, disruption, distance,
      distortion, disunion, disunity, ditch, divaricate, divergence,
      divide, dividedness, division, donga, draw, drawback, estrangement,
      excavation, failing, failure, falling-out, fault, faute, fissure,
      fissured, fissury, flaw, flume, fly open, foible, fracture,
      frailty, freckle, furrow, gap, gape, gaping, gappy, gash, gorge,
      groove, gulch, gulf, gully, hemangioma, hiatus, hickey, hole,
      imperfection, inadequacy, incise, incision, infirmity,
      interruption, interval, joint, keloid, kink, kloof, lay open, leak,
      lentigo, little problem, milium, moat, mole, needle scar, nevus,
      notch, nullah, ope, open, open rupture, open up, opening, part,
      pass, passage, pimple, pit, pock, pockmark, port-wine mark,
      port-wine stain, problem, pustule, ravine, recall of ambassadors,
      rent, rime, rimose, rimulose, rip, rive, rupture, scab, scale,
      scar, schism, scissure, scratch, seam, sebaceous cyst, separate,
      separation, shortcoming, slash, slice, slit, slot, snag,
      something missing, splinter, split, spread, spread out,
      spring open, strawberry mark, sty, swing open, taint, tap, tear,
      tear open, throw open, track, trench, twist, valley, verruca,
      vesicle, void, vulnerable place, wadi, wale, warp, wart, weak link,
      weak point, weakness, weal, welt, wen, whitehead