Etymology From Middle English rigge, rygge, (also rig, ryg, rug), from Old English hryċġ (“back, spine, ridge, elevated surface”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrugi, from Proto-Germanic *hrugjaz (“back”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krewk-, *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots rig (“back, spine, ridge”), North Frisian reg (“back”), West Frisian rêch (“back”), Dutch rug (“back, ridge”), German Rücken (“back, ridge”), Swedish rygg (“back, spine, ridge”), Icelandic hryggur (“spine”). Cognate to Albanian kërrus (“to bend one's back”) and kurriz (“back”).
Anatomy, Medicine, Sciences The back of any animal; especially the upper or projecting part of the back of a quadruped.
He thought it was no time to ſtay, / And let the Night too ſteal away, / But in a trice advanced the Knight, / Upon the Bare Ridge, Bolt upright, / And groping out for Ralpho’s Jade, / He found the Saddle too was ſtraid[…]1677 (indicated as 1678), [Samuel Butler], “[The Third Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The Third and Last Part. […], London: […] Robert Horne, […], published 1679, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, pages 237–238:
2
Any extended protuberance; a projecting line or strip.
The plough threw up ridges of earth between the furrows.
3
The line along which two sloping surfaces meet which diverge towards the ground.
mountain ridge
It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
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The highest point on a roof, represented by a horizontal line where two roof areas intersect, running the length of the area.
Among the domestic animals which may generally be seen in native houses, are gaudy parrots, green, red, and blue, a few domestic fowls, which have baskets hung for them to lay in under the eaves, and who sleep on the ridge, and several half-starved wolfish-looking dogs.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 258:
Maccario, it was evident, did not care to take the risk of blundering upon a picket, and a man led them by twisting paths until at last the hacienda rose blackly before them. Appleby could see it dimly, a blur of shadowy buildings with the ridge of roof parapet alone cutting hard and sharp against the clearing sky.1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 26, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
the British Guards lie down behind a ridge to avoid the shot and shell from the opposite heights1853-1855, Joachim Hayward Stocqueler, The Life of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington:
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A chain of mountains.
[…]Which to maintaine, I would allow him oddes, / And meete him, were I tide to runne afoote, / Euen to the frozen ridges of the Alpes, / Or any other ground inhabitable, / Where euer Engliſhman durſt ſet his foote.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], lines 62–66:
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A chain of hills.
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Geography, Natural sciences, Oceanography A long narrow elevation on an ocean bottom.
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Climatology, Meteorology, Natural sciences An elongated region of high atmospheric pressure.
Etymology From Middle English rigge, rygge, (also rig, ryg, rug), from Old English hryċġ (“back, spine, ridge, elevated surface”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrugi, from Proto-Germanic *hrugjaz (“back”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krewk-, *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots rig (“back, spine, ridge”), North Frisian reg (“back”), West Frisian rêch (“back”), Dutch rug (“back, ridge”), German Rücken (“back, ridge”), Swedish rygg (“back, spine, ridge”), Icelandic hryggur (“spine”). Cognate to Albanian kërrus (“to bend one's back”) and kurriz (“back”).