Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "rake" []

  • A long-handled implement with a row of projecting teeth at its head, used especially to gather leaves or to loosen or smooth earth. (noun)
  • A device that resembles such an implement. (noun)
  • To gather or move with or as if with a rake: rake leaves; rake in the gambling chips. (verb-transitive)
  • To smooth, scrape, or loosen with a rake or similar implement: rake the soil for planting. (verb-transitive)
  • Informal To gain in abundance. Often used with in: a successful company that raked in the profits. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "rake" in a sentence
  • "But by the next harvest I had it so constructed, as to be drawn by an iron bar so shaped, appended and supported on the underneath part of the carriage, as to admit of the machine turning in any direction, and the carriage would follow just as the two hind wheels of a wagon do; the carriage had a seat behind, and a thick, deep cushion in front, for the raker to press his knees against while removing the grain from the platform to his right hand, which he was enabled to do with apparent ease with a _rake of peculiar shape_; -- (it cannot be done with a rake of ordinary shape)."
  • "JACK: 'Tis a delicate age, by jingo, when the rake is the fine gentleman and the fine gentleman is the lady's favourite, egad."
  • ""Because we don't underestimate the international game," said Johnson, who had nine stitches running down the left side of her nose — courtesy of a face-rake from a New Zealander."