Quranic root
رفرف
r · f · r · f
The root expresses two broad orientations: drawing in or sucking, and movement associated with moisture, quivering, or gleaming. In the reduplicated form رفرف, the prominent development is fluttering movement, with related applications to glistening foliage, thin or moving cloth, and hanging tent parts.
The lexical development connects wing-fluttering and bodily or object movement with fresh, glistening vegetation and fabrics that move or hang. The noun رفرف consequently extends to spread or hanging surfaces and cloth furnishings, while other branches preserve the senses of sucking, shining, grazing, and provision.
- Maqāyīs · row 2092
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
رَفْرَفٌ
rafrafun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Spread or hanging cloth furnishings, such as carpets, coverlets, bed coverings, or broad pieces of cloth.
In the Quranic construction عَلَى رَفْرَفٍ خُضْرٍ, the term is interpreted as green cloth furnishings, carpets, beds, or other spread textile pieces.
- Lane · entry 23880
- Mufradāt · row 566
A pillow, cushion, or similar soft resting support.
This is one established interpretation of رفرف in the Quranic passage 55:76; it accounts for translations referring to cushions or pillows.
- Lane · entry 23880
- Mufradāt · row 566
Selected Quran examples
Quran 55:76word 3
“cushions”
Meadows or gardens, understood figuratively as a lush spread.
This is a reported Quran-focused interpretation of رفرف in 55:76, distinct from the textile interpretation.
- Lane · entry 23880
- Mufradāt · row 566
The hanging skirt, lower edge, or border of a tent or pavilion.
In interpretations of 55:76, the term can denote the cloth extending down around a tent or similar structure.
- Lane · entry 23880
- Mufradāt · row 566
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 55:76رَفْرَفٍcushions
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 57 Classical meanings
رَفَّ
To shine, gleam, or glisten; said of things such as teeth, colour, or lightning.
Of lightning, the shining may be intermittent or faint, disappearing and flashing again.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ
To quiver and become luxuriant, fresh, and glistening, said of plants or herbage.
The use combines movement with the fresh, glossy appearance produced by abundant sap.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ
To quiver or throb, said of the eye, eyebrow, or another bodily part.
The expression may be extended to other things that visibly tremble or quiver.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ
To exult or rejoice excessively, and to be exceedingly lively or sprightly.
The same usage can include behaving proudly or haughtily and walking with a self-conceited gait.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ
To become brisk, lively, or eager toward an undertaking.
The construction رَفَّ إِلَى may describe eagerness toward an action; the heart may likewise be described as becoming lively.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ لَهُ
To serve, attend to, or treat someone with honour.
The usage ranges from labouring in service, whether honourable or menial, to showing honour or favourable treatment.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ القَوْمُ بِهِ
To surround, encompass, or encircle someone.
The construction may also mean going round or around the person or thing.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّتْ عَلَيْهِ النِّعْمَةُ
For wealth or prosperity to be abundantly bestowed upon someone.
This is an idiomatic construction describing an abundance of bestowed provision or good fortune.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ
To eat heartily, soundly, or in large quantity.
The verb may be transitive or intransitive according to the vowel pattern and construction.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّتِ الإِبِلُ
For camels, sheep, goats, or similar animals to graze by eating without filling the mouth.
The construction describes a particular manner of feeding, especially on herbs or leguminous plants.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ اللَّبَنَ
To drink milk every day.
The expression denotes habitual or daily milk-drinking.
- Lane · entry 23867
أَخَذَتْهُ الحُمَّى رَفًّا
For fever to attack someone every day or recurrently.
This is an idiomatic application of the sense of repeated daily occurrence.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ
To suck or draw in a substance with the lips, including saliva; also to kiss by sucking the lips.
The usage includes a young animal sucking its mother and a person drawing saliva from another's lips.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّهُ
To do good to someone, confer a benefit, or provide food or grain.
The verb may describe giving or bringing food and other beneficial provision.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّهُ
To guard, defend, or take care of someone.
This is a protective or caretaking use of the derived verb.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ البَيْتَ
To furnish a house or tent with a رفّ, a shelf or shelf-like structure.
Here البيت may refer to a tent, and the noun denotes a structure on which objects are placed.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ ثَوْبَهُ
To add another piece of cloth to the lower part of a garment so as to enlarge it.
The construction concerns extending a garment or textile at its lower portion.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّهُ
To feed an animal with straw or broken, trodden, threshed, or cut straw.
The object is رُفَّةٌ, straw and its fragments used as animal feed.
- Lane · entry 23867
رَفَّ الثَّوْبُ
For a garment or piece of cloth to become thin.
This meaning is reported with limited authority in the cited lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 23867
أَرَفَّ
For a bird to spread or expand its wing over an egg.
The cited construction is أَرَفَّتْ عَلَى بَيْضَتِهَا, describing a bird covering its egg with its wing.
- Lane · entry 23868
رَفْرَفَ
For a bird to flutter or beat its wings in the air without moving from its place.
The bird may flutter around something while intending to alight, or expand and flap its wings before landing.
- Lane · entry 23870
رَفْرَفَ عَلَى القَوْمِ
To be affectionate, favourable, or kind toward a people or group.
The construction expresses a favourable or protective disposition toward others.
- Lane · entry 23870
رَفْرَفَ
To make a sound or noise.
This is a separate lexical use of the verb and its verbal noun رَفْرَفَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 23870
رَفٌّ
A shelf, rack, or shelf-like platform for household articles; also planks associated with the side of a grave niche.
The ordinary household sense is a wooden shelf or similar structure; the grave-related use refers to planks of the لحد.
- Lane · entry 23871
رَفٌّ
A collective group such as a flock, herd, row of birds, company of people, or large herd of camels.
The exact group depends on the accompanying species or social class.
- Lane · entry 23871
رَفٌّ
An enclosure for sheep or goats.
This is a noun for a livestock enclosure, not the shelf sense.
- Lane · entry 23871
رَفٌّ
A tract of sand elevated above the surrounding ground.
The term denotes a raised sandy area relative to what lies around it.
- Lane · entry 23871
رَفٌّ
Wheat, grain, or other provisions brought for oneself, one's family, or for sale.
This is synonymous with مِيرَةٌ in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 23871
رَفٌّ
A soft garment or piece of cloth.
This is a nominal textile sense distinct from the shelf and group senses.
- Lane · entry 23871
رَفٌّ
Saliva itself.
This noun is also associated with the act of sucking in saliva, but the present meaning denotes the substance.
- Lane · entry 23871
رِفٌّ
A daily share of drinking water or a daily drinking occasion.
The noun denotes a regularly allotted شِرْب.
- Lane · entry 23873
رَفَّةٌ
A flash, gleam, or shining.
The noun may be explained as a flash of lightning or as a single instance of shining.
- Lane · entry 23874
رَفَّةٌ
A quiver or throb.
This is the nominal counterpart of bodily or object movement and trembling.
- Lane · entry 23874
رَفَّةٌ
A sound or thorough act of eating.
The noun denotes a substantial or sound eating occasion.
- Lane · entry 23874
رَفَّةٌ
A suck or act of sucking.
This is the nominal form for the sucking sense.
- Lane · entry 23874
رُفَّةٌ
Straw, especially straw that has been trodden, threshed, cut, or broken into pieces.
The material is commonly associated with animal fodder.
- Lane · entry 23875
رُفَافُ
Fallen straw, dried leaves, or fallen branches of the samar tree.
The noun denotes scattered plant debris lying about.
- Lane · entry 23876
رَفِيفٌ
Shining, glistening, or glossy.
Of a garment, tree, or other object, the gloss may be associated with moisture such as dew.
- Lane · entry 23877
رَفِيفٌ
Thin, said of a garment or piece of cloth.
This is a textile-specific use distinct from the glossy or moist sense.
- Lane · entry 23877
رَفِيفٌ
Abundance of herbage or of the goods, conveniences, and comforts of life.
The noun may describe luxuriant vegetation or material abundance.
- Lane · entry 23877
رَفِيفٌ
The lily.
This is a lexicalized plant name.
- Lane · entry 23877
رَفِيفٌ
The roof of a large tent or pavilion.
The term is applied to the roof of a فُسْطَاط.
- Lane · entry 23877
ذَاتُ الرَّفِيف
A boat or joined set of boats used for crossing a river.
The cited object consists of two or three boats joined together for the use of a king.
- Lane · entry 23877
رِفَافَةٌ
The piece placed in the lower part of a helmet.
This is a protective textile or appendage associated with the helmet.
- Lane · entry 23878
رَفَّافٌ
A plant or herbage that is intensely green.
The meaning is a plant description, not the active-participial sense of shining.
- Lane · entry 23879
رَفْرَفٌ
Spread or hanging foliage, leaves, or branches.
The term can describe vegetation whose branches or leaves spread or hang down.
- Lane · entry 23880
- Mufradāt · row 566
رَفْرَفٌ
A shelf or shelf-like platform.
This sense is explicitly cross-referenced with the shelf sense of رَفٌّ.
- Lane · entry 23880
رَفْرَفٌ
A window or aperture for admitting light.
The term is used for a light-opening or window in a wall.
- Lane · entry 23880
رَفْرَفٌ
The hanging or redundant portions of a coat of mail, including mail attached to a helmet and falling over the back.
The sense concerns pendent protective material and the sides or lower portions of armour.
- Lane · entry 23880
رَفْرَفٌ
The pendent branches of a tree.
The lexical image is of branches hanging down from the tree.
- Lane · entry 23880
رَفْرَفٌ
Soft, tender, or drooping trees.
The term may refer to certain drooping trees, including trees associated with Yemen.
- Lane · entry 23880
رَفْرَفٌ
The clitoris or a pendent caruncle of the female genitalia.
This is a rare anatomical use based on the notion of a pendent part.
- Lane · entry 23880
رَفْرَفٌ
A species of sea fish.
This is a lexicalized zoological use.
- Lane · entry 23880
الرَّفْرَافُ
A bird known by a particular vernacular name; in some usage, the male ostrich.
The ostrich designation is associated with its habit of flapping its wings before running.
- Lane · entry 23881
الرَّفْرَافُ
The wing of an ostrich or of any bird.
This is a body-part noun distinct from the bird-name sense.
- Lane · entry 23881
رُفَارِفٌ
Quick or swift.
This is a lexical adjective or noun describing speed.
- Lane · entry 23882
مَرَفٌّ
A place or time of eating.
The noun denotes an eating place or an occasion set aside for eating.
- Lane · entry 23884
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic noun in 55:76 has several recorded interpretations, including textile furnishings, cushions, tent edges, and meadows or gardens; the supplied contextual gloss reflects only the cushion interpretation.
The Quranic form is a noun and is not evidence that every Classical branch of the contracted root belongs to the Quranic usage.