rip·per / ˈripər/ • n. 1. a tool that is used to tear or break something. ∎  a murderer who mutilates victims' bodies.2. inf. a thing that is particularly admirable or excellent.

ripper a murderer who mutilates victims' bodies; the term was first used in the late 19th century in connection with Jack the Ripper, and in the late 1970s began to be used of the Yorkshire Ripper, the name given to Peter Sutcliffe (1946– ), who murdered 13 women in northern England and the Midlands before being captured in January 1981.