(redirected from rifted)

a rift in the lute

A small problem or flaw in something that jeopardizes the whole. I hope this bit of rust isn't a rift in the lute and doesn't end up damaging the whole paint job.
See also: rift


1. mod. alcohol or drug intoxicated. I can’t keep getting riffed every night like this.
2. and rift mod. fired; released from employment. (From rif, “reduction in force.” A dismissal not for cause, but simply to reduce the number of workers.) Most of the sales force was rift last week.
See also: riff


See riffed
References in periodicals archive ?
The south-facing margin of West Africa began as a translational margin when South America and Africa first rifted apart.
Instead of rifted blocks littering the edge of the continent, Norway's continental margin is underlain by a series of gently dipping reflectors that tilt away from the continent.
These are generally interpreted as remnants of the cratonic crust that was rifted during Mesoproterozoic extension, the eastern limit of which may be reflected in a prominent series of west-facing crustal-scale homoclines beneath the Foreland Belt.
Depositional environments of the Composite Arc belt and Coal Creek domain include arc and rifted arc oceanic settings; MORB-like compositions are rare.
The age and style of rifting sets the collisional template, defining the shape of the rifted margin (salient-reentrant geometries) and the thermal age (strength) of the margin, similar to younger orogens.