rivel

English[edit]

From Middle English rivelen, from Old English rifelan, riflian (“to wrinkle”), from a frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *ribjōną (“to wrap; wind; roll; twist; coil”), equivalent to rive +‎ -el (frequentative suffix). Related to Old Norse rifja (“to rake (hay) into rows or furrows”).

rivel (third-person singular simple present rivels, present participle rivelling, simple past and past participle rivelled)

(intransitive) To shrivel, wrinkle (up).
(transitive) To cause to be wrinkled, to shrivel.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
  , New York Review of Books, 2001, p.279:
  they crucify the soul of man, attenuate our bodies, dry them, wither them, rivel them up like old apples, make them as so many anatomies […]

rivel (plural rivels)

(obsolete) A wrinkle; a rimple.
- 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XII.]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC:
  It wanteth the due parching and ripening against the sunne: and by that meanes commeth short of the rivels and blacknesse that the outlandish pepper hath.

Probably from (Pennsylvania German, from) Palatine Rhine Franconian Riwwel, Ribbel, Riebel (compare Volga German Rievel, Ribel, Riebel).

rivel (plural rivels)

(US) A kind of small dumpling made from egg and wheat flour, often eaten in soup, especially among the Pennsylvania Dutch and other Germans.