Saeed Gharaati
Does "rip off' mean "steal" or ...? I looked rip off in my dictionary. It says "rip off means to steal something". But it has probably a different meaning in the text below from The catcher in the rye; He was telling us all about what a swell guy he was, what a hot-shot and all, then all of a sudden this guy sitting in the row in front of me, Edgar Marsalla, laid this terrific fart. It was a very crude thing to do, in chapel and all, but it was also quite amusing. Old Marsalla. He damn near blew the roof off. the headmaster didn't say anything then, but the next night he made us have compulsory study hall in the academic building and he came up and made a speech. He said that the boy that had created the disturbance in chapel wasn't fit to go to Pencey. We tried to get old Marsalla to rip off another one, right while old Thurmer was making his speech, but but be wasn't in the right mood
Mar 11, 2013 8:00 AM
Answers · 4
1
We have an expression, "let 'er rip!" which means something like to begin, allow or set off. The "rip" analogy comes from the sound of ripping, so the expression is used for noisy actions like starting a motor, firing guns or farting. The "off" suggests a completed action. Keep in mind that phrasal verbs sometimes have multiple meanings, and the meaning you need depends on the context. Expecting a dictionary to always give you an accurate definition for phrasal verbs probably isn't a good idea. Hope you're enjoying the book! :)
March 11, 2013
In your example, 'to rip off another one" means to let go another fart.[ flatulence]
March 11, 2013
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