Meaning

noun a dissolute man in fashionable society

noun an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart

noun a stretch of turbulent water in a river or the sea caused by one current flowing into or across another current

originFrom Middle English rippen, from earlier ryppen (“to pluck”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rupjaną, *ruppōną, intensive of *raupijaną, causative of Proto-Indo-European *roub- ~ *reub-, variant of *Hrewp- (“to break”). See also West Frisian rippe, ripje, roppe, ropje (“to rip”), Dutch dialectal rippen, Low German ruppen, German Low German röpen, German rupfen, also Old English rīpan, rīepan…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0