raffle

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  Rhymes: -æfəl

From Middle English rafle, from Old French rafle, raffle (“dice game", also "plundering”), from rafler (“to snatch, seize, carry off”), from Frankish *raffolōn, from Proto-Germanic *hrapōną, *hrēpōną (“to scratch, touch, pluck out, snatch”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreb(h)-, *(s)kerb(h)- (“to turn, bend, shrink”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Middle Dutch raffel (“dice game”), German raffen (“to snatch away, sweep off”), Old English hreppan (“to touch, treat, attack”).

raffle (plural raffles)

1. A drawing, often held as a fundraiser, in which tickets or chances are sold to win a prize.

   He entered a raffle to win a lifetime supply of toothpaste, but he did not win.

2. (obsolete) A game of dice in which the player who throws three of the same number wins all the stakes.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cotgrave to this entry?)

• meat raffle

raffle (third-person singular simple present raffles, present participle raffling, simple past and past participle raffled)

1. (transitive) To award something by means of a raffle or random drawing, often used with off.

   They raffled off four gift baskets.

2. (intransitive) To participate in a raffle.

   to raffle for a watch

See raff.

raffle (uncountable)

1. refuse; rubbish

• farfel, laffer