1
as in angry
feeling or showing anger some visibly riley people were lined up in the customer service department

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

2
as in muddy
having visible particles in liquid suspension take care not to stir up the bottom of the stream when you fill the dipper, or your water will be riley

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for riley
Adjective
  • Accept Your Child's Anger When your child has an angry outburst, acknowledge it.
    Miriam Foley, Parents, 11 Mar. 2025
  • During eight tumultuous days in 1988 at the world’s only Deaf university, four students must find a way to lead an angry mob to change the course of history.
    Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline, 11 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • The machinery has previously saved elephants from mud pits, rescued dogs from rivers and even removed camels out of muddy swamps.
    Brenton Blanchet, People.com, 7 Mar. 2025
  • The Ukrainians have a name for this muddy season: bezdorizhzhya.
    David Axe, Forbes, 6 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Then Sterling did some less effective things and got suspended anyway, so that mad idea was, at least, parked for the time being.
    Amy Lawrence, The Athletic, 13 Mar. 2025
  • In one particularly horrifying incident, one family of herders lost over 40 of their stock, a fact that would contribute to the death of one child, which then caused the father to go mad and be sent to prison.
    Harrison Richlin, IndieWire, 13 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • This one, made from ballistic nylon, has a zippered entry to a padded laptop compartment, a padded mesh back panel, a key leash, plus pen holders and tons of other organizational features.
    Alesandra Dubin, Travel + Leisure, 8 Mar. 2025
  • Russia has been launching waves of ballistic and cruise missiles towards Ukraine on regular basis, and been striking cities, energy infrastructure and civilian targets weekly.
    Ivana Kottasová, CNN, 5 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Tendrils of hypocrisy appear in 2025 over baseball’s continuing ban of Rose as sports leagues including MLB climb into bed with betting sportsbooks and reap millions from them, while simultaneously acting all aghast and indignant that a player of theirs might dip a toe in gambling.
    Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 5 Mar. 2025
  • The album’s a masterpiece of circulatory funk that works your body but whose indignant resignation and few hopeful embers also break your heart.
    Wesley Morris, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Despite a furious rally in the last 17 minutes of the second half, the Terps (25-8) were left out of the Big Ten Tournament final for the third time, joining close calls in 2015 and 2016 when those squads were both bounced by Michigan State — 62-58 in 2015 and 64-61 in 2016.
    Edward Lee, Baltimore Sun, 15 Mar. 2025
  • The Tigers finally got some momentum and cut the lead to two with a furious rally and had a chance to take the lead after Louisville was called for a shot clock violation.
    Ryan Morik, Fox News, 15 Mar. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Riley.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/riley. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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