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riff
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  • The worst riff-raff in the galaxy are sent to Salusa Secundus.†   (source)
  • One of these rapid, high-note riffs that black boys make up as they go while sweeping, shoveling, or just walking along.†   (source)
  • The tenor sax, alto sax, and trumpet throw in simple riffs every now and then.†   (source)
  • He put his drink down carefully on the balcony floor and beat a riff with his fingers on the stone parapet.†   (source)
  • Then Elijah started playing a great riff on his bass, which turned out to be the opening of "Seven Nation Army."†   (source)
  • She fished a pencil from the table drawer and began to overlay her own work on his, scrawling rapid chord progressions and melodic riffs where her father had left off.†   (source)
  • Jae and her cousin riffed back and forth as we played cards.†   (source)
  • Someone would say, "One more question!" and everyone would stay for another hour and a half as Tomkins held forth on, say, comic books, a television sitcom, the biology of emotion, his problem with Kant, and his enthusiasm for the latest fad diets—all enfolded into one extended riff.†   (source)
  • If the beats were receptive to Lenny's take on hypocrisy and related matters and if they regretted his drug busts and obscenity trials, they were probably unmoved by the Russian accents and other ethnic riffs and bits that came shpritzing out of him like seltzer from an old bottling plant in Canarsie.†   (source)
  • THE MISSION STATEMENT for the 2004 MATE Robotics Competition was a significant upgrade from the inaugural event's brief riff on The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.†   (source)
  • He played a little riff of something, a Beatles song, then a few lines of the latest version of "The Potato Opus."†   (source)
  • At first he just wrote variations on Russian folk songs mixed with Jewish riffs.†   (source)
  • Marc would laugh and join the riff whereas Steve would stop me, place a hand on my shoulder, and say, "You know that's not really funny, right?"†   (source)
  • The rock group Smashing Pumpkins was contributing mantralike riffs from a portable CD player.†   (source)
  • "Will you get in?" begins Mr. Taylor, launching another discursive riff.†   (source)
  • On the radio the muffled twang of a krar repeated a six-note riff from a pentatonic scale that seemed common to all Ethiopian music, fast or slow.†   (source)
  • Then the door opened and I looked past their heads into a small crowded room of men and women sitting in folding chairs, to the front where a slender woman in a rusty black robe played passionate boogie-woogie on an upright piano along with a young man wearing a skull cap who struck righteous riffs from an electric guitar which was connected to an amplifier that hung from the ceiling above a gleaming white and gold pulpit.†   (source)
  • It gave Jaime command of the Kingsguard and a seat on the small council, and allowed Riff to throw a bone to his dog.†   (source)
  • Then the music started—loud piano keys with an electric guitar riffing right behind it and an abrupt thump of drums.†   (source)
  • "Riff-raff," said Frederic.†   (source)
  • FRANK: Upper-class riff-raff!†   (source)
  • Joe was the only one of any Importance: the others were nonentities-the riff-raff one would expect any illegal movement to gather round itself The ideals of the Freedom League meant nothing to them: their only concern was earning a living with the minimum of work.†   (source)
  • Their leader is Riff: glowing, driving, intelligent, slightly wacky.†   (source)
  • RIFF.†   (source)
  • The term, riff, was popularized by a Charlie Parker song.
    riff = music:  a repeated series of notes that forms the basis or accompaniment of a rock music or jazz composition
  • He raised his pipes to his mouth and played a quick riff The manticore yelled, "Stop him!"†   (source)
  • No, no, Trivole said, and then knocked on the door, a quick and happy musical riff.†   (source)
  • What'd she say it is?" she riffs, leading on the others.†   (source)
  • As the stage is cleared, Tony stands, horrified, over the still bodies of Riff and Bernardo.†   (source)
  • RIFF Your best man fights our best man-and we pick him.†   (source)
  • Everyone but Riff and Velma stops dancing.†   (source)
  • Riff goes at once to A-rab, like a protective father.†   (source)
  • She slithers forward to take her place with Riff.†   (source)
  • RIFF Tony, don't just standBERNARDO Yellow-bellied chickenTONY!†   (source)
  • As the music peters away, the Jets withdraw to one side of the hall, around Riff.†   (source)
  • RIFF [sweet innocence] I'm gonna make nice there!†   (source)
  • ] RIFF [to Diesel, indicating Tony happily] I guess the kid's with us for sure now.†   (source)
  • And what else is a room with half-breeds in it, eh, Riff?†   (source)
  • Then Bernardo and Diesel remove their jackets, handing them to their second: Chino and Riff.†   (source)
  • Riff reaches for his back pocket, and at the same instant each forth a gleaming knife.†   (source)
  • Riff steps forward and beckons to his girl, Velma.†   (source)
  • Tony is on the other with Riff and Diesel.†   (source)
  • RIFF Bernardo hasn't learned the procedures of gracious livin'.†   (source)
  • He bends over Riff's body; then he rolls Bernardo's body over-and stares.†   (source)
  • RIFF BERNARDO TONY Bottles, knives, guns!†   (source)
  • [She lunges for A-rab, but Riff pulls her off and pushes her out.†   (source)
  • ] RIFF Now when the victims come in, you chicks cut out.†   (source)
  • Riff reaches for Velma; and the kids of both gangs follow suit.†   (source)
  • [The store doorbell tinkles as Riff enters with Velma.†   (source)
  • ] RIFF Tony, the trouble is large: The Sharks bite hard!†   (source)
  • ACTION [simultaneously] RIFF The commanders say yes or no. [To Bernardo.†   (source)
  • BERNARDO RIFF [quiet, strong] The deal is a fair fight between and Diesel.†   (source)
  • DIESEL Right, Daddy-o. RIFF Let's get the chicks and kick it.†   (source)
  • Riff loses his knife, is passed another by a Jet.†   (source)
  • RIFF [to Tony] I'm counting on you to be there Tonight When Diesel wins it fair and square Tonight.†   (source)
  • Tony breaks from Diesel and, crying out, moves to stop Riff.†   (source)
  • Then Riff nods once to Bernardo, who nods to his gang.†   (source)
  • RIFF [such innocence] Why if it isn't Lieutenant Schrank.†   (source)
  • RIFF I'm not finalizin' and sayin' they will: I'm only sayin' they might and we gotta be prepared.†   (source)
  • ] Maria… TONY [He is unaware that Bernardo is crossing toward him, but Riff intercepts.†   (source)
  • RIFF I say this turf is small, but it's all we got.†   (source)
  • ACTION [to Riff] What d'ya think they're gonna ask for?†   (source)
  • RIFF The kick comes from the people, buddy boy.†   (source)
  • [A-rab looks to Riff, who takes over with great helpful seriousness.†   (source)
  • Anybodys is back, huddled by the jukebox, but Riff spots her.†   (source)
  • [This is Riff's summoning of the gang, and they surround him.†   (source)
  • WE ALL KILLED HIIM; and my brother and Riff.†   (source)
  • RIFF Come on, AnybodysANYBODYS Riff, how about me getting' in the gang now?†   (source)
  • RIFF Whatever terms you're callin', buddy boy.†   (source)
  • ] ACTION [to Riff] What're we poppin' around with dumb broads?†   (source)
  • RIFF Against the Sharks we need every man we got.†   (source)
  • RIFF We've got to stand up to the PRs, Doc.†   (source)
  • ] RIFF As a matter of factuality, sir, we suspicion the job was done by a cop.†   (source)
  • BERNARDO [one with Riff] And Officer Krupke!†   (source)
  • He sees Alison's piano in the corner of the room, bolts over and bangs out a little jazz riff "I didn't know you ever played much piano," I say.†   (source)
  • People visited the ruins only by day, riff-raff from outside the city furtively slinking about with shovels over their shoulders, scattering through the cellars in search of loot.†   (source)
  • But a few minutes into it, the instrument seems more natural in Mr. Ayers's hands, and his left hand slides cleanly up and down the neck as his right hand plucks out a bluesy riff.†   (source)
  • I'd asked her recently after one of Gervais's visits, which I had spent alternately struggling with the power rule and sitting by, open-mouthed, as they riffed on the minute details of a recent sci-fi blockbuster, down to the extra scenes after the credits.†   (source)
  • And when the piano riff at the start of the New Pornographers' "Challengers" kicks in, I know I've put myself in good hands.†   (source)
  • We hardly need more riff-raff.†   (source)
  • Lenny followed this flurry with an erudite riff on the German word Sprachgefuhl, a feel for language, for what is idiomatically hip—he reads up on things like this in hotels and on planes and back home in the smoky dawn of L. A. while he's waiting for a woman or a pusher.†   (source)
  • Of late some Ethiopian music adopted a Western sound, with horns, snare drums, and a repeating electric guitar riff that took the place of the muffled strings of the krar and the hand clapping.†   (source)
  • —triumphantly; there was a brief spatter of applause, presumably for the dead Rufus; and the drummer bowed his head and did an oddly irreverent riff on the rim of his drum: klook-a-klook, klook-klook, klook-klook!†   (source)
  • Today she's doing a riff-mostly for the benefit of another girl with them in line-about Cedric's long-ago flirtation with Connie Mitchell, a gorgeous, light-skinned ingenue from the Boiling Air Force base area, who arrived here midway through tenth grade.†   (source)
  • …kind of abridged syntax, a thing without connectives, he was cooking free-form, closer to music than speech, doing a spoken jazz in which a slang term generates a matching argot, like musicians trading fours, the road band, the sideman's inner riff, and when the crowd dispersed they took this rap mosaic with them into the strip joints and bars and late-night diners, the places where the nighthawks congregate, and it was Lenny's own hard bop, his speeches to the people that rode the…†   (source)
  • They might swap stories of the laughs they'd had, gigs they'd played, riffs they remembered, or the trouble they'd seen.†   (source)
  • You don't think. an African blackness, you know the saturate blacking of a bandwidth somewhere on the continent, some nomad swath of high desert grace and shape, but in gesture and stance, I saw, the way he tongued some spittle off his lip between riffs, a body demotic that was locally made—he was another scuffling trumpet from an inner city somewhere.†   (source)
  • The talk is fast, riffing between subjects and inside references, and Cedric gets seconds, then thirds.†   (source)
  • "And remember, all you kids out there," he riffs in a voice now closing in on his own, "you are our future, you can be anything you want, you can go anywhere your heart leads you."†   (source)
  • RIFF.†   (source)
  • RIFF.†   (source)
  • RIFF.†   (source)
  • SNOWBOY BERNARDO Come on, you yellow-bellied Polack bas[He never finishes, for Riff hauls off and hits him.†   (source)
  • RIFF BERNARDO You said call weapons.†   (source)
  • BERNARDO RIFF RIFF BERNARDO …Bats.†   (source)
  • But Riff… Riff was like my brother.†   (source)
  • RIFF [quietly] …Or from bein buddies.†   (source)
  • This turns into a challenge dance between Bernardo and Anita-cheered on by the Sharks-and Riff and Velma-cheered on by the Jets.†   (source)
  • During it, Tony enters and is momentarily embraced by Riff, who is delighted that his best friend did turn up.†   (source)
  • Maria tries to reach Bernardo, Tony tries to stop Riff; the lovers try to reach each other, but they cannot.†   (source)
  • [Bernardo's move is checked by Riff.†   (source)
  • ANYBODYS Riff-in a tight spot you need every man youRIFF No. GRAZIELLA [indicating Anybodys to Velma] An American tragedy.†   (source)
  • [Riff hesitates a moment; the moments is enough for Bernardo-whose hand goes forward with a driving motion, running his knife into Riff.†   (source)
  • RIFF At the dance tonight at the gym.†   (source)
  • RIFF DIESEL A-RAB ACTION Murder him!†   (source)
  • RIFF Who jumped A-rab this afternoon?†   (source)
  • ] RIFF We challenge you to a rumble.†   (source)
  • The harsh shadows, the fire escapes of the real, tenement world cloud the sky, and the figures of Riff and Bernardo slowly walk on.†   (source)
  • RIFF That's how it's done, buddy boy.†   (source)
  • ] RIFF The road, little lady, the road.†   (source)
  • RIFF You told us the difference, sir.†   (source)
  • Tony leaps forward to catch Riff.†   (source)
  • RIFF [holding him] Easy, Action!†   (source)
  • ] RIFF So I can count on you, boy?†   (source)
  • RIFF Who asked you to moved here?†   (source)
  • ] RIFF Spread the word, Diesel.†   (source)
  • RIFF OK, buddy boys, we rumble!†   (source)
  • RIFF The Jets are the greatest!†   (source)
  • RIFF Because it's me askin': Riff.†   (source)
  • DOC No, Riff, it's closing time.†   (source)
  • BERNARDO Weapons… RIFF You call.†   (source)
  • Here we go, Riff: Womb to Tomb!†   (source)
  • Spotlights pick out Riff and Sharks, Anita, Maria and Tony against different places in the neighborhood. for the coming of night, but for very JETS [sings] The Jets are gonna have their day Tonight.†   (source)
  • RIFF 'cause your ma's hot for me.†   (source)
  • TONY No. RIFF What're you doing?†   (source)
  • ] RIFF [in darkness] Tony!†   (source)
  • RIFF ACTION My old man says.†   (source)
  • Below, Riff is haranguing.†   (source)
  • RIFF and JETS They began it.†   (source)
  • DIESEL What do you say, Riff?†   (source)
  • Oh, Riff, Riff, I was murder!†   (source)
  • RIFF For what?†   (source)
  • TONY Riff, I've had it.†   (source)
  • RIFF Let's go outside.†   (source)
  • RIFF [sharply] Cool!†   (source)
  • RIFF What is?†   (source)
  • [Riff steps up.†   (source)
  • RIFF That's Tony.†   (source)
  • RIFF Cool, little men.†   (source)
  • ] SNOWBOY Riff, hey!†   (source)
  • RIFF The river.†   (source)
  • RIFF What's with you?†   (source)
  • RIFF Cool, Action boy.†   (source)
  • ] RIFF Weapons!†   (source)
  • Riff and Bernardo.†   (source)
  • RIFF Right.†   (source)
  • RIFF Womb to tomb!†   (source)
  • RIFF Doc's drugstore?†   (source)
  • ] TONY Riff, don't!†   (source)
  • RIFF [shaking the ladder.†   (source)
  • RIFF Bust cool.†   (source)
  • ] RIFF Get with the gang.†   (source)
  • RIFF Kick it, Doc.†   (source)
  • RIFF Try me.†   (source)
  • RIFF It's brilliant.†   (source)
  • RIFF OK.†   (source)
  • RIFF Ten?†   (source)
  • RIFF No?†   (source)
  • ] RIFF Hold him!†   (source)
  • RIFF Who knows?†   (source)
  • RIFF A-RAB I wanna bust!†   (source)
  • RIFF Riga tiga tum tum.†   (source)
  • RIFF Cool, boy.†   (source)
  • RIFF Great, Daddy-O!†   (source)
  • RIFF Are.†   (source)
  • RIFF …Rocks.†   (source)
  • RIFF Afraid to call?†   (source)
  • RIFF Sperm to worm!†   (source)
  • RIFF Unwind, Action.†   (source)
  • RIFF Go cool!†   (source)
  • RIFF Cut the frabbajabba.†   (source)
  • ] RIFF Set 'em up, Doc.†   (source)
  • RIFF I want you, though.†   (source)
  • RIFF WE DO OWN IT!†   (source)
  • RIFF Cut it, Action boy.†   (source)
  • Obviously, he was one of those men whom Mammy and Dilcey referred to as "de riff-raff whut Miss Melly pick up off de streets an' let sleep in her cellar.†   (source)
  • Then would be the time for discontented people, Lollards and Communists and Nationalists and all the riff-raff.†   (source)
  • Make some crack about Primo de Rivera" "I could ask her what kind of a jam they think they've gotten into in the Riff" "Poor," said Bill."†   (source)
  • —I repeat, are you not ashamed, to mix with such riff-raff?†   (source)
  • Drawn up haughtily, with her head held high, she gazed at the "riff-raff," with scornful curiosity.†   (source)
  • She arranged her cloak with hands that trembled with anger as she waited for the "riff-raff" to go.†   (source)
  • I am a bit of dirty riff-raff, and a genuine scrap of tag, rag, and bobtail.'†   (source)
  • I fought against the Riff because I am a European, and I have fought the Communists because they want to take my property from me.†   (source)
  • He loved people of doubtful occupations and shifty purposes; and his acquaintance among the riff-raff that frequents the bars of London was enormous.†   (source)
  • But he had entirely severed his connection with what he called "young Verdurin," taking a general view of him as one who had fallen—though without losing hold of his millions—among the riff-raff of Bohemia.†   (source)
  • And these policemen were unprincipled riff-raff, they talked at me till I was sick of it, they wanted bribes, they wanted to trick me into giving them my clothes, they wanted money, supposedly so that they could bring me my breakfast after they had blatantly eaten my own breakfast in front of my eyes.†   (source)
  • And the Riff?†   (source)
  • As they approached, it was evident that Mr. Brooke was looking dejected, but this was fully accounted for by the state of politics; and as he was shaking hands all round without more greeting than a "Well, you're all here, you know," the Rector said, laughingly— "Don't take the throwing out of the Bill so much to heart, Brooke; you've got all the riff-raff of the country on your side."†   (source)
  • A peculiar circumstance attracted his attention: there seemed to be some kind of festivity going on, there were crowds of gaily dressed townspeople, peasant women, their husbands, and riff-raff of all sorts, all singing and all more or less drunk.†   (source)
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