26984 words

riff

5 definitions • 5 examples
1
in jazz or popular music, a tune that continues or appears regularly in a piece of music while other parts change or are added:

Examples:

The song is punctuated by long guitar riffs.
2
something that is slightly different to the usual form:

Examples:

Pistachio-parmesan truffles are a fun riff on those nut-covered cheese balls your mum used to make.
His ingenious riff on the original script delights and provokes.
3
in jazz or popular music, to play a short, repeated series of notes :

Examples:

The singer growled over acoustic guitar while his bandmates riffed on banjo, ukulele, and fiddle.
4
to speak for a long time on a particular subject, especially in a humorous way:

Examples:

He strutted and riffed on topics from global warming to parenthood.
5
(in popular music) a simple tune that is used as a pattern for creating more complicated musical patterns

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