raff
See also: Raff
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɹæf/
Etymology 1
From Middle English raf, from Old French raffer, of Germanic origin; compare German raffen, akin to rap (“to snatch”). Compare riffraff, rip (“to tear”).
Noun
raff (countable and uncountable, plural raffs)
- A promiscuous heap; a jumble; a large quantity; lumber; refuse.
- 1680, Isaac Barrow, A Discourse Concerning The Unity Of The Church
- A raff of errors.
- 1680, Isaac Barrow, A Discourse Concerning The Unity Of The Church
- The common rabble or mob; riffraff.
- 1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist:
- Jostling with unemployed labourers of the lowest class, ballast-heavers, coal-whippers, brazen women, ragged children, and the raff and refuse of the river, he makes his way with difficulty along […]
-
- A low fellow; a churl.
Derived terms
- raff merchant
Verb
raff (third-person singular simple present raffs, present participle raffing, simple past and past participle raffed)
- To sweep, snatch, draw, or huddle together; to take by a promiscuous sweep.
- 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769, OCLC 752813518:
- Causes and effects which I thus raffe up together.
-
Alternative forms
- raffe
- raffie
Noun
raff (plural raffs)
- (nautical) A three-cornered sail set on a schooner when before the wind.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for raff in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)
Anagrams
- ARFF, FFAR
German
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʁaf/
Audio (file) - Homophone: RAF
Verb
raff
- singular imperative of raffen
- (colloquial) first-person singular present of raffen
Welsh
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /raːf/
Noun
raff
- Soft mutation of rhaff.
Mutation
| Welsh mutation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
| rhaff | raff | unchanged | unchanged |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | |||
Further reading
- R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “raff”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies