Definition of "rife"

Before the plague of London, inflammations of the lungs were rife and mortal.

1712, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies

The tumult of loud mirth was rife.

1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903,

She was afterwards Lady Keith; and the mention of this name in the tale, as it were by mere accident, fixes the era of it in the reign of James the Fourth, at the very time that fairies, brownies, and witches, were at the rifest in Scotland.

1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet

The 'denominational considerations' mentioned below relate, of course, to anti-Semitic feeling, which was already rife in Vienna during the last years of the nineteenth century.

1900, Sigmund Freud, translated by James Strachey, The Interpretation of Dreams: Avon Books, page 170

BRB engineers, it is known, have a warm regard for the Ventura range and speculation is rife that it may feature more widely in future BR dieselisation programmes.

1964 May, R. K. Evans, “The Ventura—Paxman's high-speed engine”, in Modern Railways, page 329

They will have to reflect on a seventh successive defeat in a European final while Chelsea try to make sense of an eccentric season rife with controversy and bad feeling but once again one finishing on an exhilarating high.

2013 May 15, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian‎

What! I am rife a little yet.

1661, John Webster, William Rowley, A Cure for a Cuckold