rake Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a dissolute man in fashionable society
    rip; rakehell; blood; roue; profligate.
  2. noun degree of deviation from a horizontal plane
    slant; pitch.
    • the roof had a steep pitch
  3. noun a long-handled tool with a row of teeth at its head; used to move leaves or loosen soil
  4. verb move through with or as if with a rake
    • She raked her fingers through her hair
  5. verb level or smooth with a rake
    • rake gravel
  6. verb sweep the length of
    • The gunfire raked the coast
  7. verb examine hastily
    glance over; skim; run down; scan.
    • She scanned the newspaper headlines while waiting for the taxi
  8. verb gather with a rake
    • rake leaves
  9. verb scrape gently
    graze; crease.
    • graze the skin

WordNet

Rake noun
Etymology
AS. race; akin to OD. rake, D. reek, OHG, rehho, G. rechen, Icel, reka a shovel, and to Goth. rikan to heap up, collect, and perhaps to Gr. to stretch out, and E. rack to stretch. Cf. Reckon.
Definitions
  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. Perhaps a different word. (Mining) A fissure or mineral vein traversing the strata vertically, or nearly so; -- called also rake-vein.
Rake transitive verb
Etymology
AS. racian. See 1st Rake.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Raked; present participle & verbal noun Raking
Definitions
  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. Swift.
  5. To scrape or scratch across; to pass over quickly and lightly, as a rake does.
    Like clouds that rake the mountain summits. Wordsworth.
  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.
Rake intransitive verb
Definitions
  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. Dryden.
  2. To pass with violence or rapidity; to scrape along.
    Pas could not stay, but over him did rake. Sir P. Sidney.
Rake noun
Etymology
Cf. dial. Sw. raka to reach, and E. reach.
Definitions
  1. To inclination of anything from a perpendicular direction; as, the rake of a roof, a staircase, etc.; especially (Naut.) , the inclination of a mast or tunnel, or, in general, of any part of a vessel not perpendicular to the keel.
Rake intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To incline from a perpendicular direction; as, a mast rakes aft.
Rake noun
Etymology
OE. rakel rash; cf. Icel. reikall wandering, unsettled, reika to wander.
Definitions
  1. A loose, disorderly, vicious man; a person addicted to lewdness and other scandalous vices; a debauchee; a roué.
    Am illiterate and frivolous old rake. Macaulay.
Rake intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. Icel. reika. Cf. Rake a debauchee. To walk about; to gad or ramble idly. Prov. Eng.
  2. See Rake a debauchee. To act the rake; to lead a dissolute, debauched life. Shenstone. Encyc. Brit.

Webster 1913