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rake1

Syllabification: (rake)
Pronunciation: /rāk/
Translate rake | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of rake

noun

  • an implement consisting of a pole with a crossbar toothed like a comb at the end, or with several tines held together by a crosspiece, used especially for drawing together cut grass or fallen leaves, or smoothing loose soil or gravel.
  • an implement similar to a rake used for other purposes, e.g., by a croupier drawing in money at a gaming table.

verb

[with object]
  • collect, gather, or move with a rake or similar implement:they started raking up hay
  • make (a stretch of ground) tidy or smooth with a rake:the infield dirt is meticulously raked
  • scratch or scrape (something, especially a person’s flesh) with a long sweeping movement:her fingers raked Bill’s face
  • draw or drag (something) with a long sweeping movement:she raked a comb through her hair
  • sweep (something) from end to end with gunfire, a look, or a beam of light:Greg let his high beams rake the shrubbery
  • [no object] move across something with a long sweeping movement:his icy gaze raked mercilessly over Lissa’s slender figure
  • [no object] search or rummage through something:Nina decided to rake through the drawers

Phrases

(as) thin as a rake

(of a person) very thin.

Phrasal Verbs

rake something in

informal make a lot of money, typically very easily:he was now raking in $250 million a year

rake something up/over

revive the memory of an incident or period of time that is best forgotten:I have no desire to rake over the past

Derivatives

raker

noun

Origin:

Old English raca, racu, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch raak and German Rechen, from a base meaning 'heap up'; the verb is partly from Old Norse raka 'to scrape, shave'

rake in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of rake in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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