As a verb: tears forcefully or moves rapidly; as a noun: tears in fabric or dangerous ocean currents that pull swimmers away from shore.
From Middle English 'rippen,' possibly from North Germanic origin. The ocean current sense emerged in American English from the idea of water 'ripping' or tearing away from the shoreline.
Rip currents are nature's conveyor belts, moving at speeds up to 8 feet per second - faster than Olympic swimmers. The key to survival is counterintuitive: don't fight the rip directly, but swim parallel to shore until you escape its grip.
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