word of the day: rive

The word of the day is rive:

verb (used with object), rived, rived or riven, riving.

1. to tear or rend apart.

2. to separate by striking; split; cleave.

3. to rend, harrow, or distress (the feelings, heart, etc.).

4. to split (wood) radially from a log.

verb (used without object), rived, rived or riven, riving.

5. to become rent or split apart.

< Old Norse rīfa to tear, split.  (dictionary.com) 

"They hastened to apprise the debutante of her rights while she banged the mud off her dance floor heels and shook the sand and smudges out of her riven ballgown."

 - Karen Elizabeth Gordon, Out of the Loud Hound of Darkness: A Dictionarrative