Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Rake   /reɪk/   Listen
noun
Rake  n.  
1.
An implement consisting of a headpiece having teeth, and a long handle at right angles to it, used for collecting hay, or other light things which are spread over a large surface, or for breaking and smoothing the earth.
2.
A toothed machine drawn by a horse, used for collecting hay or grain; a horserake.
3.
(Mining) A fissure or mineral vein traversing the strata vertically, or nearly so; called also rake-vein.
Gill rakes. (Anat.) See under 1st Gill.


Rake  n.  The inclination of anything from a perpendicular direction; as, the rake of a roof, a staircase, etc.; especially (Naut.), The inclination of a mast or funnel, or, in general, of any part of a vessel not perpendicular to the keel.


Rake  n.  A loose, disorderly, vicious man; a person addicted to lewdness and other scandalous vices; a debauchee; a roué. "An illiterate and frivolous old rake."


verb
Rake  v. t.  (past & past part. raked; pres. part. raking)  
1.
To collect with a rake; as, to rake hay; often with up; as, he raked up the fallen leaves.
2.
Hence: To collect or draw together with laborious industry; to gather from a wide space; to scrape together; as, to rake together wealth; to rake together slanderous tales; to rake together the rabble of a town.
3.
To pass a rake over; to scrape or scratch with a rake for the purpose of collecting and clearing off something, or for stirring up the soil; as, to rake a lawn; to rake a flower bed.
4.
To search through; to scour; to ransack. "The statesman rakes the town to find a plot."
5.
To scrape or scratch across; to pass over quickly and lightly, as a rake does. "Like clouds that rake the mountain summits."
6.
(Mil.) To enfilade; to fire in a direction with the length of; in naval engagements, to cannonade, as a ship, on the stern or head so that the balls range the whole length of the deck.
To rake up.
(a)
To collect together, as the fire (live coals), and cover with ashes.
(b)
To bring up; to search out and bring to notice again; as, to rake up old scandals.


Rake  v. i.  
1.
To use a rake, as for searching or for collecting; to scrape; to search minutely. "One is for raking in Chaucer for antiquated words."
2.
To pass with violence or rapidity; to scrape along. "Pas could not stay, but over him did rake."


Rake  v. i.  To incline from a perpendicular direction; as, a mast rakes aft.
Raking course (Bricklaying), a course of bricks laid diagonally between the face courses in a thick wall, to strengthen it.


Rake  v. i.  
1.
To walk about; to gad or ramble idly. (Prov. Eng.)
2.
To act the rake; to lead a dissolute, debauched life.
To rake out (Falconry), to fly too far and wide from its master while hovering above waiting till the game is sprung; said of the hawk.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Rake" Quotes from Famous Books



... lives, monotonous scratching-up of mussels and cockles, a never-failing trade, their terms of praise—"the biggest scrat," for instance, "in all the island," being the form of commendation for the woman who can with her rake at the end of a long pole scratch up most shellfish in a given time; the low, fertile green pastures, the creamy cheese and the eight yearly cheese-fairs. The city itself is the most foreign-looking in all England, and the inhabitants have the good taste to be proud of this. The river Dee—Milton's ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various
... the author of this work proposed when he sat down to write the story of Robert Seymour, was to place that artist in the position which he believes him to occupy in the ranks of British graphic humourists, and not to rake up or revive the memory of a somewhat painful controversy. Of the claim itself we would simply remark, that not only was it made in all sincerity by those who loved and cherished the memory of Robert Seymour, but that to ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt
... timber of ships will rot at sea, or if laid up high and dry, will strain, warp and dry-rot. Money, if kept by us, yields no rent and is liable to loss; if invested, is liable to depreciation of the particular kind of stock. Strike, says the smith, the iron is white. Keep the rake, says the haymaker, as nigh the scythe as you can, and the cart as nigh the rake. Our Yankee trade is reputed to be very much on the extreme of this prudence. It saves itself by its activity. It takes bank notes,—good, bad, clean, ragged, and saves itself by the speed with which it ...
— Essays • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... siege. The round bastion opened fire at eight o'clock, not on the opposing battery, but on the right of the French attack. Its advanced position enabled a portion of its guns to rake these trenches slant-wise: and depressing its guns it made the round shot strike the ground ...
— White Lies • Charles Reade
... the circumstances of its mistress; nor in all that time had he seen Hazel. The place looked wintry enough to-day, with its bare trees, and here and there the remnant of a light snow that had fallen lately; but the dropped leaves were carried away, and the sweep shewed fresh touches of the rake; everything was in perfect order. Dingee ushered the visiter into the great drawing-room, to warm himself by a corresponding fire; and there in a minute Hazel joined him, looking grave and flushed. The doctor had not sat down; he turned to face ...
— The Gold of Chickaree • Susan Warner


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com