Link Centre Dictionary

rake

US/ɹeɪk/ fairly common slang uk
verb (6) noun (3)

verb

1.

move through with or as if with a rake

  • “She raked her fingers through her hair”
2.

level or smooth with a rake

  • “rake gravel”
3.

sweep the length of

  • “The gunfire raked the coast”
4.

examine hastily

  • “She scanned the newspaper headlines while waiting for the taxi”
Synonyms
5.

gather with a rake

  • “rake leaves”
6.

scrape gently

  • “graze the skin”
Synonyms

noun

1.
2.

degree of deviation from a horizontal plane

  • “the roof had a steep pitch”
Synonyms
3.

a long-handled tool with a row of teeth at its head; used to move leaves or loosen soil

Origin

From Middle English rake, rakke (“pass, path, track; type of fencing thrust; pasture land (?)”), and then partly: * probably from Old English racu (“bed of a stream; path; account, narrative; explanation; argument, reasoning; reason”) (compare Old English hrace, hraca, hracu (“gorge”)), from Proto-Germanic *rakō (“path, track; course, direction; an unfolding, unwinding; account, narrative; argument, reasoning”) [and other forms], from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, right oneself”); and * from Old Norse rák (“strip; stripe; furrow; small mountain ravine”), further etymology uncertain but probably ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rakō, as above. Cognates The English word is cognate with Icelandic rák (“streak, stripe; notch in a rock; vein in stone or wood”), Norwegian råk (“channel (in ice); cow path; trail”), Norwegian Nynorsk råk (“channel (in ice); cow path; trail; furrow; stripe”), Swedish råk (“crack or channel in ice; river valley”); and probably cognate with Old Danish rag (modern Danish rag (“stiff; taut”) (regional)), Old Norse rakr (“straight”), Swedish rak (“straight”).

Phrases

  • cavex rake
  • clam rake
  • de-thatching rake
  • dethatching rake
  • fire rake
  • grass rake
  • hay rake
  • lawn rake
  • rake 'n' scrape
  • rake and scrape
  • rake in
  • rake it in

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Part of

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.