a character in a tale (1819) by Washington Irving, American essayist, biographer and historian (1783 - 1859). Rip wanders through the mountains with his dog when he meets some dwarfs and drinks from their keg. He falls asleep and wakes twenty years later, an oldman. He returns to his town and finds his termagant wife dead, his daughter married, etc. —NVRD Approved Glossary