7 entries under this word
n. [A-S. race, O. D. rake, raecke, reke, Icel. reka, O. H. Ger. recho, N. H. Ger. rechen, from Icel. reka, to scrape, collect, L. Ger. raken.] An instrument consisting of a head-piece in which teeth are inserted, 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.
n. [Cf. Ger. racker, a cur, villain, rascal, räckel, räkel, rekel, a cur, a clumsy fellow, Dan. rälkel, a gangrel, long-lubber, lath-back. Cf. RACH.] A loose, disorderly, vicious man; a man addicted to lewdness and other scandalous vices. “An illiterate and frivolous old rake.” Macaulay.
n. [Cf. A-S. ræcan, to reach, extend, Ger. ragen, to reach, project, jut, stand forth, stand out.]
n. (Mining.) A mineral vein traversing the strata vertically, or nearly so, and of the same thickness;—called also rake-vein.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. RAKED (rākt); p. pr. & vb. n. RAKING.] [A-S. racian, racigean, Icel. & Sw. raka, Dan. rage, Ger. rechen. See RAKE, n.]
Sense 1. To treat with a rake; to pass a rake over; to smooth, to clear, to gather, &c., with a rake; to scrape over; as, to rake the ground; to rake hay or barley.
Sense 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.
Sense 3. To go searching among or over; to scour; to ransack.
The statesman rakes the town to find a plot. Swift.
Sense 4. To pass over with violence or rapidity.
Like clouds that rake the mountain’s summit. Wordsworth.
Sense 5. (Mil.) To enfilade; to fire in a direction with the length of; especially, in naval engagements, to cannonade, as a ship, on the stern or head, so that the balls range the whole length of the deck; hence the phrase, to rake a ship fore and aft.
To rake up, applied to fire, to cover the fire with ashes.
v. i. 1. To use a rake for searching or collecting; to scrape; to scratch in order to find something; to search minutely and meanly.
One is for raking in Chaucer for antiquated words. Dryden.
Sense 2. To pass with violence or rapidity; to scrape along.
Pas could not stay, but over him did rake. Sidney.
Sense 3. To lead a dissolute, debauched life. Shenstone.
Sense 4. To incline from a perpendicular direction; as, a mast rakes aft.
Sense 5. To fly wide of the game, as a hawk sometimes does. Halliwell.
Sense 6. To walk about; to gad or ramble idly. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
n. A common Russian brandy. Simmonds.