Other forms: revs; revving; revved
Rev your engine at a stoplight if you want to race the car next to you. On second thought, don’t — to rev is to crank the engine without going anywhere. Also, a rev is one complete rotation of a motor.
Rev, as a verb or a noun, is a shortened form of revolution. As a noun, it’s a rotation of the motor or the number of rotations in a minute. The word has been around since the early 20th century, following the invention of the automobile. Rev can be used for any internal combustion engine, but it's most often used for the zooming sound of a car engine. Rev and revolution come from the Late Latin revolutionem, "a revolving."