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ribbon

nounverbcommon in dialogue

  • //ˈɹɪbən//

A long, narrow strip of material used for decoration of clothing or the hair or gift wrapping.

noun

  1. 1

    A long, narrow strip of material used for decoration of clothing or the hair or gift wrapping.

    A Svveet diſorder in the dreſſe / Kindles in cloathes a vvantonneſſe: / […] / A Cuffe neglectfull, and thereby / Ribbands to flovv confuſedly: / […] / Do more bevvitch me, than vvhen Art / Is too preciſe in every part.

  2. 2

    An awareness ribbon.

    With Monday marking the beginning of October’s annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month observance, supporters will be donning their pink ribbons as a show of support for ongoing research for a cure.

  3. 3

    An inked strip of material against which type is pressed to print letters in a typewriter or printer.

    Late at night, in the typewriter light / Ripped his ribbon to shreds

    They were single-shift, frontstroke, typebar typewriters with four-bank QWERTY keyboards, inked by a ribbon.

  4. 4

    A narrow strip or shred.

    a steel or magnesium ribbon

    sails torn to ribbons

  5. 5

    A narrow strip or shred. In ice cream and similar confections, an ingredient (often chocolate, butterscotch, caramel, or fudge) added in a long narrow strip.

  6. 6

    A painted moulding on the side of a ship.

  7. 7

    A watchspring.

  8. 8

    A bandsaw.

  9. 9

    datedReins for a horse.

    "Here, sir, hold the ribbons." This to me, throwing me the reins. Jack got down from his perch, and after a little search in the bush was rewarded by the capture of the poor dazed pigeon, who was consigned to safe custody in the boot.

  10. 10

    A bearing similar to the bend, but only one eighth as wide.

  11. 11

    A sliver.

  12. 12

    A subheadline presented above its parent headline.

  13. 13

    A toolbar that incorporates tabs and menus.

    Office programs are drowning in features—and they're crammed into so many different nooks and crannies that even pros don't know where to look. That's where the new ribbon fits in.

  14. 14

    An apparatus with a handle and a long narrow strip of fabric.

  15. 15

    An apparatus with a handle and a long narrow strip of fabric. An apparatus program with a ribbon.

  16. 16

    Variant of ribbandAlternative form of ribband.

Etymology

From Middle English riban, ryban, ryband, from Old French riban, ruban ( > modern French ruban), of uncertain origin. Likely from a Germanic compound whose second element is cognate with English band. Compare Middle Dutch ringhband (“necklace”, literally “ring-band”).

verb

  1. 1

    To decorate with ribbon.

  2. 2

    To stripe or streak.

Forms

plural
ribbons
past tense
ribboned
past participle
ribboned
present participle
ribboning
third person singular
ribbons
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).