verb

• (transitive, archaic except in past participle) To tear apart by force; to rend; to split; to cleave.
  "I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds / Have rived the knotty oaks[…]"
• (transitive, archaic) To pierce or cleave with a weapon.
  "And therwith she toke the swerd from her loue that lay ded and fylle to the ground in a swowne / And whan she aroos she made grete dole out of mesure / the whiche sorowe greued Balyn passyngly sore / and he wente vnto her for to haue taken the swerd oute of her hād but[…]sodenly she sette the pomell to the ground / and rofe her self thorow the body"
• (intransitive) To break apart; to split.
  "The varlet at his plaint was grieu'd so sore, / That his deepe wounded hart in two did riue[…]."
• (transitive, rare) To burst open; explode; discharge.
  "Ten thousand French have ta'en the sacrament, To rive their dangerous artillery"