rakehell

rakehell

See also: rake-hell

English

Alternative forms

• rake-hell

Etymology

Possibly an alteration (by association with rake and hell) of Middle English rakel (“hasty, rash, headstrong”), probably from raken (“to go, proceed”), from Old English racian (“to go forward, move, hasten”). Compare rakeshame.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹeɪkhɛl/

Adjective

rakehell (comparative more rakehell, superlative most rakehell)

1. (archaic) Immoral; dissolute. [from 16th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.11:

     And farre away, amid their rakehell bands, / They spide a Lady left all succourlesse […].

Synonyms

• rakehelly

Noun

rakehell (plural rakehells)

1. (archaic) A lewd or wanton person; a debauchee; a rake. [from 16th c.]
   • Barrow

     It seldom doth happen, in any way of life, that a sluggard and a rakehell do not go together.

Anagrams

• hell-rake