rake

• IPA^(key): /ɹeɪk/

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• Rhymes: -eɪk
• Homophone: raik

From Middle English rake, from Old English raca, racu, ræce (“rake”), from Proto-Germanic *rakō, *rekô (“rake”). Cognate with Dutch raak, reek, riek (“rake; pitchfork”), German Low German Raak (“rake; poker”), German Rechen (“rake; grill”), Swedish raka (“an oven-rake”).

rake (plural rakes)

1. A garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed to a long handle, used for collecting grass or debris, or for loosening soil.
   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175, page 071:

     Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. […]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.

2. (Ireland, slang) A lot, plenty.

   Jim has had a rake of trouble with his new car.

3. (rail transport, Britain) A set of coupled rail vehicles, normally coaches or wagons.

   The train was formed of a locomotive and a rake of six coaches.

4. (cellular automata) A puffer that emits a stream of spaceships rather than a trail of debris.
5. The scaled commission fee taken by a cardroom operating a poker game.
6. A toothed machine drawn by a horse, used for collecting hay or grain; a horserake.
7. (mining) A fissure or mineral vein traversing the strata vertically, or nearly so.

• (rail transport): consist

• thin as a rake

rake (third-person singular simple present rakes, present participle raking, simple past and past participle raked)

1. To use a rake on (leaves, debris, soil, a lawn, etc) in order to loosen, gather together, or remove debris from.

   We raked all the leaves into a pile

2. To search thoroughly.

   Detectives appeared, roped the curious people out of the grounds, and raked the place for clews. -- Captain John Blaine

   • Dryden

     raking in Chaucer for antiquated words

   • Jonathan Swift

     The statesman rakes the town to find a plot.

3. To spray with gunfire.

   the enemy machine guns raked the roadway

4. To claw at; to scratch.

   Her sharp fingernails raked the side of my face.

   • Wordsworth

     like clouds that rake the mountain summits

5. To gather, especially quickly (often as rake in)

   The casino is just raking in the cash; it's like a license to print money.

6. (intransitive) To pass with violence or rapidity; to scrape along.
   • Sir Philip Sidney

     Pas could not stay, but over him did rake.

• (search thoroughly): comb, go over or through with a fine-tooth comb, scour

From Middle English raken, from Old English racian (“to direct, rule, govern, control; take a course or direction, go forward, move, run; hasten”), from Proto-Germanic *rakōną (“to choose a direction, run”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, direct”). Cognate with Dutch raken (“to hit, touch, reach”).

rake (plural rakes)

1. Slope, divergence from the horizontal or perpendicular.
2. (geology) The direction of slip during fault movement. The rake is measured within the fault plane.
3. (roofing) The sloped edge of a roof at or adjacent to the first or last rafter.

rake (third-person singular simple present rakes, present participle raking, simple past and past participle raked)

1. (intransitive) To proceed rapidly; to move swiftly.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To guide; to direct
3. (intransitive) To incline from a perpendicular direction.

   A mast rakes aft.

Shortening of rakehell, possibly from rake (etymology 2) (“to proceed rapidly”).

rake (plural rakes)

1. A man habituated to immoral conduct.

   • The Spectator

     We now have rakes in the habit of Roman senators, and grave politicians in the dress of Rakes. —the Spectator

• roué

rake (third-person singular simple present rakes, present participle raking, simple past and past participle raked)

1. (Britain, dialectal, dated) To walk about; to gad or ramble idly.
2. (Britain, dialectal, dated) To act the rake; to lead a dissolute, debauched life.

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

3. (hunting, intransitive) Of a dog or hawk, to follow the wrong course; to go wide of the game being pursued.

From Middle English, from Old Norse rák (“trail”), from Proto-Germanic *rēkō, *raką, *rakō, *rakǭ (“file of tracks, line”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, direct”). Cognate with Icelandic rák (“streak, grazing”), Icelandic raka (“strip, series”), Norwegian røk (“grazing”), Norwegian rak (“wick”), Old English race, racu (“a run, riverbed”).

• raik

rake (plural rakes)

1. (provincial, Northern England) A course; direction; stretch.
2. (provincial, Northern England, for animals) A range, stray.

   a sheep-raik = a sheep-walk

rake (third-person singular simple present rakes, present participle raking, simple past and past participle raked)

1. (provincial, Northern England) To run or rove.

• “rake” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.
• “rake” (US) / “rake” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

• KERA, Kear, aker, reak

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rake

1. Inflected form of raak

rake

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of raken

Borrowed from Yoruba ireke.

ràkē m (possessed form ràken)

1. sugarcane

rake

1. definite singular and plural of rak

rake

1. definite singular and plural of rak

rake (present tense rakar, past tense raka, past participle raka, passive infinitive rakast, present participle rakande, imperative rak/rake)

1. Alternative form of raka

• raik, rayk

From Middle English raken, from Old English racian (“to direct; rule; take a course or direction; run”).

rake (third-person singular present rakes, present participle rakin, past rakit, past participle rakit)

1. To proceed with speed; go; make one's way
2. To journey; travel
3. (of animals) To move across or search for pasture; wander; roam
4. To stray

rake

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of rak.

rake

1. to want

• Ulrike Mosel, The Teop sketch grammar