n. An opening made by riving or splitting; a fissure; a cleft or crevice; a chink.n. A riving or splitting; a shattering.To rive; cleave; split.To make or effect by cleavage.To burst open; split.Split; specifically, following the general direction of the splitting or checking: said of a log: as, rift pine boards. Compare quartered, 4.n. A veil; a curtain.To belch.n. A shallow place in a stream; a fording-place; also, rough water indicating submerged rocks.n. In wood-working, a saw in which the cutting-teeth are placed at the ends of radial arms instead of upon the rim of a disk.n. In geology, one of the principal cleavages or planes of weakness in building-stone, as quarried, of which the quarrymen take advantage. The two others, commonly occurring at right angles with it and with one another, are called the cut-off and the lift.