The Collaborative International Dictionary
River \Riv"er\, n. [F. riv[`e]re a river, LL. riparia river, bank of a river, fr. L. riparius belonging to a bank or shore, fr. ripa a bank or shore; of uncertain origin. Cf. Arrive, Riparian.]
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A large stream of water flowing in a bed or channel and emptying into the ocean, a sea, a lake, or another stream; a stream larger than a rivulet or brook.
Transparent and sparkling rivers, from which it is delightful to drink as they flow.
--Macaulay. -
Fig.: A large stream; copious flow; abundance; as, rivers of blood; rivers of oil. River chub (Zo["o]l.), the hornyhead and allied species of fresh-water fishes. River crab (Zo["o]l.), any species of fresh-water crabs of the genus Thelphusa, as Thelphusa depressa of Southern Europe. River dragon, a crocodile; -- applied by Milton to the king of Egypt. River driver, a lumberman who drives or conducts logs down rivers. --Bartlett. River duck (Zo["o]l.), any species of duck belonging to Anas, Spatula, and allied genera, in which the hind toe is destitute of a membranous lobe, as in the mallard and pintail; -- opposed to sea duck. River god, a deity supposed to preside over a river as its tutelary divinity. River herring (Zo["o]l.), an alewife. River hog. (Zo["o]l.)
Any species of African wild hogs of the genus Potamoch[oe]rus. They frequent wet places along the rivers.
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The capybara.
River horse (Zo["o]l.), the hippopotamus.
River jack (Zo["o]l.), an African puff adder ( Clotho nasicornis) having a spine on the nose.
River limpet (Zo["o]l.), a fresh-water, air-breathing mollusk of the genus Ancylus, having a limpet-shaped shell.
River pirate (Zo["o]l.), the pike.
River snail (Zo["o]l.), any species of fresh-water gastropods of Paludina, Melontho, and allied genera. See Pond snail, under Pond.
River tortoise (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous fresh-water tortoises inhabiting rivers, especially those of the genus Trionyx and allied genera. See Trionyx.
Wikipedia
[[Image:Uss panay.png|thumb|right|400px|The USS Panay, a United States Navy river gunboat, part of the brown-water navy, which served on the Yangtze Patrol, hunting for river pirates and Chinese insurgents, on the Yangtze River, in China. The Panay was later sunk, by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces, in 1937,
known as the Panay Incident]]
A river pirate is a type of pirate, who operates along a river. The term "river pirate" has been used to describe many different kinds of pirate groups, which carry out riverine attacks in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America.
Usage examples of "river pirate".
Riverboat gambler, river pirate, and bad actor generally, he was one of the top men at Natchez-under-the-Hill, and one of the most feared men along the river.
Such a tragedy would finally bring about the death of Kalaman as a city, not to mention ending the thriving river pirate culture based in the city of Vingaard.
Though most travellers nowadays were peaceable (and paid toll before they passed under Sparcot bridge), few of the villagers had forgotten the day, five or six years ago, when they had been threatened by a solitary river pirate armed with a flamethrower.
The smile through his great beard made him look like a bandit or a river pirate.
Arshadin is no river pirate, no two-horse, forty-acre baron with a stone barn full of staggering louts to do his bidding while the drink holds out.
Then when Zoya started to play the ballad of Stenka Razin (an 18th-century Volga River pirate who ventured across the Caspian Sea to raid Turkish villages, and became a Russian folk hero), the whole house joined in harmony.