rife

Word family

rife /raɪf/ adjectiveadj

1 [not before noun]COMMON if something bad or unpleasant is rife, it is very common 〔不良或令人讨厌的事物〕普遍存在的，流行的

Violent crime is rife in our inner cities.

暴力犯罪在我们的旧城区非常猖獗。

► see thesaurus at common

2 rife with something FULLfull of something bad or unpleasant 充斥某事物

The crowded factories are rife with disease.

拥挤的工厂疾病流行。

Examples from the Corpus

rife with something• From the start, their romance was rife with complications.

3 run rife to spread quickly in an uncontrolled way 迅速蔓延

No one knew exactly what he had done, but speculation ran rife.

没有人确切知道他的所作所为，但是各种猜测层出不穷。

Examples from the Corpus

rife• Pitt was a great philanthropist and wanted to stamp out smuggling, which was rife.• Reports of inhuman treatment, torture, and public execution for failure to conform with Kimism were rife.• Rumours have always been rife about Macari's interest in turf accountancy.• Drug abuse is rife despite a nationwide crackdown.• Bribery is rife in jockeying for good positions on the dealing floor of some firms.• Horror stories are rife of ex-cons setting up their own security companies, with all the obvious risks that entails.• Only later did I find out conjecture was rife that I was a government spy.• But rumour is rife that the reactor pot has already been buried.• Granted, expectation of the Messiah was rife throughout the Holy Land at the time.

Origin rife

Old English ryfe

Chinese

Corpus

BNC: 13754 COCA: 14019

rife adj.
⇨ general 1

BNC: 13754 COCA: 14019

rife