riffle

1 a small wave on the surface of a liquid [syn: ripple, rippling, wavelet]

2 shuffling by splitting the pack and interweaving the two halves at their corners

1 twitch or flutter; "the paper flicked" [syn: flick, ruffle]

2 look through a book or other written material; "He thumbed through the report"; "She leafed through the volume" [syn: flick, flip, thumb, leaf, riff]

3 stir up (water) so as to form ripples [syn: ripple, ruffle, cockle, undulate]

4 shuffle (playing cards) by separating the deck into two parts and riffling with the thumbs so the cards intermix

English

Etymology

riffeln; rifeln - to groove

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪfəl

Noun

1. A fast-flowing, shallow part of a stream
2. A trough or sluice having cleats, grooves, or steps across the bottom for holding quicksilver and catching particles of gold when auriferous earth is washed. Also one of the cleats, grooves or steps in such trough.
3. A quick skim through the pages of a book

Verb

1. To ruffle with a rippling action
2. To skim or flick through the pages of a book
3. To prepare samples of material using a riffler

A riffle (also known as a swift) is a shallow stretch of a river or stream, where the current is above the average stream velocity and where the water forms small rippled waves as a result. It often consists of a rocky bed of gravels or other small stones. This portion of a stream is often an important habitat for small aquatic invertebrates and juvenile fishes.

See also

• Stream pool
• Rapid

References

External links

• USGS stream modeling

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