Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Cheaply or showily vulgar in appearance or nature; tawdry.
- adj. Characterized by a carefree or fun-loving unconventionality; rakish.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Resembling or having the character of the raff or rabble; scampish; worthless; rowdy. Compare raff, n., 5.
Wiktionary
- adj. Characterized by careless unconventionality; rakish.
- adj. Low-class; disreputable; vulgar.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Resembling, or having the character of, raff, or a raff; worthless; low.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. marked by a carefree unconventionality or disreputableness
- adj. marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners
Etymologies
- Probably from dialectal raff, rubbish, from Middle English raf, perhaps of Scandinavian origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“There’s a lot of good info here, though I did want to let you know something – I am running Ubuntu with the up-to-date beta of FireFox, and the design of your site is kind of raffish for me.”
“Others might regard him as a conscienceless, borderline psychopath, and the riveting central performance by Rhys Ifans, who plays Marks as a charming, raffish boyo from the Welsh valleys, doesn't wholly preclude such an interpretation.”
“As a child swot, though, I felt a responsibility to my family to enter a "respectable" profession I dutifully studied law but found journalism's raffish camaraderie more accommodating.”
The Guardian: Back to the land: from London to sheep farming on Eigg
“A mustachioed man in a pullover meets a wavy-haired blonde to produce a figure with an oddly raffish cavalier look; a middle-aged woman with a complex hairdo acquires the aquiline nose of the actor she obscures.”
The Guardian: Brian Dillon on John Stezaker at the Whitechapel Gallery
“I suggested "The King's Speech," and, not wanting to spoil it with too many details, gave a shorthand description: Colin Firth as King George VI, who has a terrible stutter, and Geoffrey Rush as a raffish Australian speech therapist.”
The Wall Street Journal: 'Gnomeo': A Bard's Garden of Delights
“Something of the devotion of the parents is clearly visible here, as well as the almost raffish informality of the Australian golden boy and heir to Kilmany Park and Craigellachie.”
“Finally there is raffish Uncle Roy of the 13th Hussars, with his moustaches, bow tie, and pumps, looking somehow prematurely older than he should.”
“The past few years have seen Daniel Sinsel discard hia dark enchantment with male porn stars: black-eyed young men who gazed from his canvases like raffish Pans with a taste for S&M.”
“He extinguishes his cigarette, buttons up his raffish crushed velvet overcoat and volleys wide from eight or nine yards.”
“In the 18 months since his diagnosis with oesophageal cancer, Christopher lost his beautiful voice, his raffish air, his optimism and swagger.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘raffish’.
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
raad, rabanna, rabbet, rabble, Rabelaisian, rabic, racemation, raceme, racemiferous, rach, rachidian, rachiometer and 514 more...
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truman486's list
Masterbatory Aids
ensorcelled, scintilla, maudlin, lugubrious, frisson, praxis, copasetic, crotch, corollary, bandy, undulating, anthropomorphic and 65 more...
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GRE Study guide
Going through the Magoosh website, words I pulled from the verbal section. 2012.
magnanimous, correlate, anglicized, simulacrum, tantamount, obsequiousness, subterfuge, vehement, vociferous, benign, concomitant, veracity and 83 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
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Good for Academics
Gahh!! Study!
supplant, usurp, finagle, winnow, draconian, abut, collude, swindle, objectify, incite, decadent, obstinate and 327 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Wordwild's Delights
Delightful words to read and use
plangent, ribald, titubant, sidereal, pelagic, improvident, dolorous, parlous, baleful, precatory, pied, mephitic and 247 more...
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Magooosh
impugn, repudiate, sardonic, barnstorm, bemoan, unseemly, cornerstone, noisome, malodorous, retroactively, spuriously, spasmodically and 217 more...
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words
diplopic, dolorous, farrago, surety, scuttlebutt, Arabesque, infarct, neurasthenia, lambent, expurge, univocal, simper and 395 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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Reading Random
Got unknown words randomly
delinquency, modicum, dissuade, incendiary, destitute, lachrymose, plight, ruse, empirical, pedantic, demography, giggle and 444 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 547 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for raffish.
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