rig

UK/ɹɪɡ/US/ɹɪɡ/

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,689 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: rigs

A rig is the equipment for drilling, or a large lorry. An oil rig, a drilling rig, a big rig.

The oil rig is the commonest sense, and offshore ones are floating platforms that must be towed into place. In America a big rig is an articulated lorry, and as a verb, to rig is either to set something up or to fix it dishonestly.

Definitions of rig

1nounrigThe equipment for drilling, or a large lorry.B2
“Workers are flown by helicopter to the oil rig in the North Sea.”

rig is an equipment.

Where it comes from

Probably of Scandinavian origin, related to Norwegian rigge, to bind up or equip.

From Early Modern English rygge, probably of gmq origin. Compare Norwegian rigge (“to bind up; wrap around; rig; equip”), Swedish dialectal rigga (“to rig a horse”), Faroese rigga (“to rig; to equip and fit; to make s.th. function”). Possibly from Proto-Germanic rik- (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European rign-, reyg- (“to bind”); or related to Old English wrīhan, wrīohan, wrēohan, wrēon (“to bind; wrap up; cover”). See also wry (“to cover; clothe; dress; hide”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

rig in the wild

Examples include a schooner rig, cutter rig, junk rig, etc.
Rig (sailing)
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged.
Brig
In the first half of the 19th century, the vast majority were rigged as brigs, and that rig was retained for longer in the northeast of England.
Brig
As a sailing rig, a cutter is a single-masted boat, with two or more headsails.
Cutter (boat)
However, the typical rig, especially in Naval or revenue protection use, was a single-masted rig setting a huge amount of sail.
Cutter (boat)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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rig