• (British, America) enPR: rĭj, IPA: /ɹɪdʒ/

ridge (plural ridges)

1. (anatomy) The back of any animal; especially the upper or projecting part of the back of a quadruped.
   • 1663–1678, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part III, canto I, pages 91–92 ↗:

     He though it was no time to ſtay, / And let the Night too ſteal away, / But in a trice advanced the Knight, / Upon the Bare Ridge, Bolt upright, / And groping out for Ralpho’s Jade, / He found the Saddle too was ſtraid […]

2. Any extended protuberance; a projecting line or strip.

   The plough threw up ridges of earth between the furrows.

3. The line along which two sloping surfaces meet which diverge towards the ground.
   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175 ↗:

     It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick.

4. The highest point on a roof, represented by a horizontal line where two roof areas intersect, running the length of the area.
5. (fortifications) The highest portion of the glacis proceeding from the salient angle of the covered way.
6. A chain of mountains.
   • circa 1595 William Shakespeare, Richard II, [Act I, scene i], lines 62–66:

     […] Which to maintaine, I would allow him oddes, / And meete him, were I tide to runne afoote, / Euen to the frozen ridges of the Alpes, / Or any other ground inhabitable#Etymology_2|inhabitable, / Where euer Engliſhman durſt ſet his foote.

7. A chain of hills.
8. A long narrow elevation on an ocean bottom.
9. (meteorology) An elongated region of high atmospheric pressure.
   • Antonyms: trough

• French: crête
• German: Grat
• Italian: cresta, crinale, costone
• Portuguese: aresta
• Russian: гре́бень
• Spanish: cresta, arista

• French: faîte
• German: First
• Italian: colmo
• Portuguese: cumeeira
• Spanish: cumbrera, caballete

• French: crête
• German: Bergrücken, Grat, Kamm
• Italian: catena
• Portuguese: espinhaço, serro, serra, cordilheira
• Russian: го́рный хребе́т
• Spanish: cordillera, sierra

• Portuguese: serro, serra
• Russian: го́рный хребе́т

• French: dorsale
• Italian: dorsale
• Portuguese: dorsal oceânica
• Russian: океани́ческий хребе́т
• Spanish: dorsal, dorsal oceánica

ridge (ridges, present participle ridging; past and past participle ridged)

1. (transitive) To form into a ridge
2. (intransitive) To extend in ridges

• Rhodesian Ridgeback

1. A village in Hertsmere, Hertfordshire.
2. Surname named after the natural feature.
3. A male given name.