1463–4 in Proc. Somerset Archaeol. & Nat. Hist. Soc. (1880) 25 60 (MED) Pro ryppynge et suppocione orfries et lavacione duarum albarum, ij d.

1532 Accts. St. John's Hosp., Canterbury (Canterbury Cathedral Archives: CCA-U13/4) For fellyng & ryppyng of ij thou[sand] & di. of tymber.

1564 J. Rastell Confut. Serm. M. Iuell f. 112^v How much ys master Iuell to be estemed, for rippyng and opening of such priuie misteries?

1618 W. Lawson New Orchard & Garden vii. 18 Heare you must be carefull, not to hurt your Tree when you gather them, by ripping amongst the rootes.

1678 R. L'Estrange tr. Epistles xxiii. 174 in Seneca's Morals Abstracted (1679) The Ripping of a Hang-nail is sufficient to Dispatch us.

1703 R. Neve City & Countrey Purchaser at Tyle For Ripping and Heeling again..our Sussex Bricklayers reckon 3s. 6d. per Square, and if they Counter-lath it then 3s. 9d. or 4s.

1748 B. Langley London Prices Index 384 Ripping of Pan-Tiling.

1801 S. T. Coleridge Let. 1 Feb. (1956) II. 669 When your Ripping [of oak-bark] is over you will come, or, at furthest, immediately after your Hay Harvest.

1833 J. Holland Treat. Manuf. Metal II. xiv. 331 These rods were afterwards further reduced by an ingenious operation, called by the workmen in this country ripping or rumpling.

1900 in J. S. Farmer Public School Word-bk. 167 Ripping (Eton), a ceremony incidental to the departure of a Senior Colleger for King's College, Cambridge: when he has got King's his gown has to be stitched up that it may be ripped afterwards by the Provost or his deputy.

1962 Recorded Interview (Brit. Libr. Sound Archive) (Survey Eng. Dial.: C908) (MS transcript) Track 9 [Yorkshire] How did they get paid..what about for ripping? Ripping was so much a yard; according to thickness, you see.

1979 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts Jan. 93/1 I was very interested in your ideas about shifting the rippings from the coal face and spreading it into the sea.

2006 Good Woodworking June 70/1 For ripping I use a ⁵/ ₈in, 3tpi skip-tooth blade.

1609 T. Morton Catholike Appeale ii. xiii. 251 What shall we speake of baptizing by mad-men, & by Pagans, and in scorne, and with puddle water, euen vnto the ripping vp of the mothers belly.

1746 Fool (1748) I. 77 The Ripping up and Disembowelling of the dead Bodies.

1876 T. W. Knox Underground lxi. 875 Spot was getting ready for a growl, and began to peel his ivories like the ripping up of an old shoe.

1946 Cosmopolitan Oct. 141/1 On the particular occasion which was to prove prologue to the inevitable ripping off of the velvet glove, we had a caller.

1994 Church Times 21 Oct. 19/2 If only Mary Shelley had confined herself to one thing: turning out a model Gothic tale of horror with the usual ingredients—the elixir of life, lonely hillsides, ghostly castles, graveyards, and the ripping up of innocent guts.

1843 G. Dodd Days at Factories xi. 248 [London Marble-Works] A few paragraphs back we described a machine called a ‘ripping-bed’, by which a slab of marble could be cut up into strips.

1920 A. H. Fay Gloss. Mining & Mineral Industry 573 (Standard) Ripping-bed, a machine for cutting stone into slabs; a gang stone-saw.

1823 P. Nicholson New Pract. Builder 220 If planks are sawed longitudinally, through their thickness, the saw-way is called a ripping-cut.

1958 Pop. Mech. Jan. 225/1 When you require a straight ripping cut through wood..clamp a straightedge to the work.

1873 Amer. Artisan 31 May 341/1 Plass' Safety Band Sawing Machines, With Re-Sawing And Ripping Gauge Attachment.

1940 Pop. Sci. Monthly Apr. 155/2 The long extension bars enable the ripping gauge to be set at 24″ from the blade.

1964 Portsmouth (New Hampsh.) Herald 25 June 11/3 (advt.) 7″ power saw..open handle, ball and bronze bearings... Ripping gauge.

1815 Criminal Recorder II. 267 Mr. Vermillee gave testimony to the instrument, called a ripping hook, being among the chest of tools deposited in his house.

1956 D. G. Browne Rise Scotl. Yard vi. 59 Beneath him was a ripping-hook, but all three victims had been killed by blows on the head.

1984 Amer. for Effective Law Enforcement. Liability Rep. June 8 (title) ‘Ripping hook’ in car not grounds to arrest for possession of weapon.

1750 Trials Prisoners Assizes Maidstone (ed. 2) 5/2 Lunn Reyney and Margaret Bell, were indicted for feloniously stealing out of his Majesty's Dock..two Ripping Irons.

1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. Ripping-Iron, a tool used in stripping copper, or thin wood-sheathing, off a vessel's bottom.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Ripping-Iron, a caulker's tool for tearing oakum out of a seam.

1904 F. Bailey Lure o' Gold xiv. 160 The long, slim ripping iron, which looked like an attenuated, flattened cold chisel, was brought and inserted into one of the cracks.

1815 W. Cobbett Lett. Late War U.S. & Great Brit. 166 Ropes and ripping knives, and axes and gibbets, ought to make part of our weapons in a war against her.

1859 H. B. Stowe Minister's Wooing xv. 236 She sat down with the black silk and prepared her ripping-knife.

1995 I. Leach Hides & Skins for Tanning Industry (U.N. Food & Agric. Organization) v. 42 Ripping Knife. A sharp pointed knife with a straight blade about 150 mm long..which is used for cutting into hides and skins.

1872 Ann. Rep. Commissioner Patents 1871 II. 596/1 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (42nd Congr., 2nd Sess.: House of Representatives Executive Doc. 86) VIII The ripping-tool, constructed and operating as above described, as a new article of manufacture.

1994 W. L. Gheen Upholstery Techniques Illustr. (ed. 2) ii. 9 If a claw tool or ripping tool is to be used, some hammering device is necessary.

1892 Newport (Rhode Island) Daily News 15 Feb. 5/2 The equipment consists of one 45-foot extension ladder,..one ripping bar and necessary rope for drawing-truck.

1993 J. A. Hufnagel Stanley Compl. Bk. Home Repair & Improvem. i. i. 28 Tack claws, pry bars, and ripping bars are designed specifically for prying tasks, from pulling small nails to disassembling framing and demolishing walls.

1776 Battle of Brooklyn ii. 18 Sir! it is I that call, to inform your Lordship, there has been a great deal of shooting towards the Red Lyon, within this little while... Ripping work, my Lord!

1853 G. A. Sala Slang in Househ. Words 24 Sept. 76/1 Anything of good quality is stunning, ripping, out-and-out.

1858 J. C. Thomson Almæ Matres i. 3 Some a little encouraged by the ripping Burton which the Scouts took care to ply liberally.

1887 M. E. Braddon Like & Unlike I. i. 17 We killed on Hagley Heath after a ripping half-hour over the grass.

1894 ‘A. Hope’ Dolly Dialogues ix. 51 She did look ripping in that white frock.

1911 D. H. Lawrence White Peacock ii. ii. 229 She was very fine and frank and unconventional—ripping, I thought her.

1921 H. Williamson Beautiful Years 137 Jack was excited about his friend going to school with him. ‘I say, how ripping, man!’ he cried.

1944 R. Lehmann Ballad & Source 36 This is a ripping place, and they're being jolly decent to us.

1978 M. Palin & T. Jones (title) Ripping yarns.

1997 Guardian 12 July (Jobs & Money section) 8/2 Committeeship: In this ripping wheeze you join all the most obscure and boring works committees..(eg, pension-fund trustee).

1826 Sporting Mag. 17 319 They had slipped away down wind, at a ripping pace.

1828 Bell's Life in London 27 July 4/1 The ripping bowling of the Captain.

1868 H. Woodruff & C. J. Foster Trotting Horse Amer. xi. 116 There is no occasion for the ripping spurts which intervene in the other training.

1877 London Society June 537/1 Hinkly's bowling was ripping indeed.

1903 B. Mitford Dorrien of Cranston xii. 87 Then [we] ran home at a ripping pace in a thundering squall and a good deal of a sea.

1999 Sport Diver Dec. 7/1 Research into technology or business carries on at a ripping pace while marine exploration is often regarded as an issue for another day.