rip off

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rip off (plural rip offs)

1. Misspelling of rip-off.

rip off (third-person singular simple present rips off, present participle ripping off, simple past and past participle ripped off)

1. (literally) To pull off by ripping.
2. (transitive, slang) To cheat or swindle, especially by charging an excessively high or unfair price.

   I can't believe how the car dealerships try to rip off their customers.

   • 2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     But a personal and almost menopausal crisis brings him back to an Edinburgh he hardly recognises. As if in a Sergio Leone film, Renton has an obscure need to return, to confront the demons of his past, in particular the three guys he ripped off after a drug deal at the end of the last story.

   • 2025 July 23, Richard Wilcock, “A new dawn for the Electrostars”, in RAIL, number 1040, page 25:

     "Nobody wants to feel ripped off, do they? And when you look at refurbishments like this, you must make sure the basics are done well, because that is what makes up most of the passenger experience. It makes people come back," says Darney.

3. (transitive, slang) To steal.
   • 1988 December 18, Christopher Wittke, “Why I Loved Marc Almond From The Minute I First Read About Him”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 23, page 16:

     Rechy's The Sexual Outlaw had been a formative book for me, ever since I ripped it off from a hometown bookstore in my early teens (what was I supposed to do, interact with a clerk?)

   • 1990, "The Telltale Head" (The Simpsons season 1 episode 8)

     - Hey, guys. Where'd you get all that great stuff?
     - Five-finger discount, man.
     - You ripped it off?

4. (transitive, slang) To copy, especially illegally.

   They ripped off the whole idea from their competitors.

   • 2013, “Higgs Boson Blues”, in Nick Cave (lyrics), Push the Sky Away, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:

     Robert Johnson and the devil, man / Don't know who's gonna rip off who

   • 2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in the Guardian‎^[2]:

     Boyle revives some of the stylistic tics which found themselves being ripped off by geezer-gangster Britflicks back in the day, but now the freezeframes are briefer, sharper; the movie itself refers back to the original with variant flashback versions of famous scenes, but also Super 8-type images of the boys’ poignant boyhood in primary school.

• rip-off

• knock off