reft

noun

reft

noun

/ɹɛft/

1

A chink; a rift.

  • If thou mayest finde any shore, Or hole , or reft , what ever it werec. 1360s (date written), Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “The Romaunt of the Rose”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542, →OCLC:
  • At one time the summit was beautifully bathed in golden light, whilst the middle part was quite blue, and the snow of its peculiar blue-green colour in the refts. Some of the glaciers are very distinct to us, and with the telescope I can see the refts and corrugations of the different parts, and the edges from which avalanches have fallen […]1870, Dr. Bence Jones, chapter II, in The Life and Letters of Faraday, volume II, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., page 146:
1 more example
  • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter VII, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600641.txt Now and again through a reft in the smoke a gleam of sunshine could be seen striking the rocks on the great peak to the west, but it had little or no effect in the gorge.

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