reif
obsolete
reif is a noun meaning “Robbery” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-I-F and has one syllable, and it appears about once in every 11 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of reif is reifs.
What does reif mean?
noun
- 1
ScotlandobsoleteRobbery.
The opposition, which, as we shall see, was headed by Archbishop Beaton, protested against the "daily slaughters, murders, reifs, thefts, depredations, and heavy attemptates, that are daily and hourly committed within this realm in fault of
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce reif?
Reif has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of reif
- rief
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is reif?
Reif appears about once in every 11 million words in written English, the 101,613th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does reif come from?
From Middle English ref, reaf, reif, from Old English rēaf (“plunder, spoil, booty, raiment, garment, robe, vestment, armor”), from Proto-West Germanic *raub, from Proto-Germanic *raubą, *raubaz (“rape, robbery”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hrewp- (“to rip, tear”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).