Other forms: ridges
A ridge is a long narrow crest — the top line of a hill where two slopes meet, or the peak of a roof. Walk along the ridge, a ridge of high ground, the ridge tiles.
It is used for anything long and raised: the ridges in corduroy, a ridge of hardened skin. In weather forecasting a ridge of high pressure brings settled conditions, and the phrase is heard on every forecast. Note that ridge walking is a specific kind of hill walking along a crest, which is exhilarating and exposed, and that a ridge is a shape rather than a height — a low ridge is perfectly ordinary.
1nounridgeA long narrow crest of high ground.
“The path follows the ridge for about three miles.”
2nountopThe line along the top of a roof.
“Two ridge tiles came off in the storm.”
3nounraisedAny long raised line on a surface.
“There are ridges in the sand where the tide went out.”
ridge is a long raised line.
Old English hrycg meant a back or spine, and the sense of a hill crest came from the resemblance. German Rücken still means a back. A ridge of hills is an animal's spine seen from a distance, which is exactly how it looks.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)krewk-
Proto-Germanic
*hrugjaz — back
Proto-West Germanic
*hrugi
Old English
hryċġ — back, spine, ridge, elevated surface
Middle English
rigge
English, today
ridge
Built from
From Middle English rigge, rygge, (also rig, ryg, rug), from Old English hryċġ (“back, spine, ridge, elevated surface”), from Proto-West Germanic hrugi, from Proto-Germanic hrugjaz (“back”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)krewk-, (s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots rig (“back, spine, ridge”), frr reg (“back”), West Frisian rêch (“back”), Dutch rug (“back, ridge”), German Rücken (“back, ridge”), Swedish rygg (“back, spine, ridge”), Icelandic hryggur (“spine”). Cognate to Albanian kërrus (“to bend one's back”) and kurriz (“back”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Nature & Weather, Camping & Outdoors