Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A dissolute person; a rake.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Dissolute; base; profligate.
- n. An abandoned fellow; a wicked wretch; especially, a dissolute fellow; a rake.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A lewd, dissolute fellow; a debauchee; a rake.
- adj. obsolete Dissolute; wild; lewd; rakish.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a dissolute man in fashionable society
Etymologies
- Possibly by folk etymology from obsolete rackle, headstrong, from Middle English rakel, perhaps from raken, to go. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Rake originated from the old English term 'rakehell' and was coined because of the belief that one could only find such a horrible person after scouring through hell with a rake.”
“Her brothers were rogues—or had been—and her father had been the worst rakehell ever, but to her knowledge none of them had ever trifled with the servants, not even Oliver when he was in his wild phase and had lived in a bachelor house of his own.”
“Posted December 19, 2004 10: 48 PM rakehell writes:”
Friedman on the Battle of Ideas, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“I took my half-day on Wednesday, and naturally on that day the king and his bosom friend, the known rakehell George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, attended the early performance.”
“He read out: ‘This known bon viveur, Wit, rakehell, and royal intimate, has abducted Mistress Elizabeth Malet, the great heiress of the North, who is only sixteen years old!’”
“A young rakehell who frequented too many unsavory taverns?”
“The first section of Eyre's memoir, Utopia and Other Places (1993), is titled "Long Shadows", and describes how nearly every member of the family seems in thrall to half-remembered stories about its past, not least its Irish ancestry (a roofless country house in the west of Ireland; rakehell tales of carousing and bankruptcy).”
“A rakehell rogue notorious for his devil-may-care antics, Lucas Bingham--the Earl of Hadley--is not accused of murdering anything--save for the rules of Polite Society.”
“Posted February 13, 2006 10:23 AM rakehell writes:”
Drain Our Brains: It's the Law!, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“Posted December 31, 2005 11:54 PM rakehell writes: "The difficulty of all of this is that it makes it very hard for a company or school to discriminate in hiring based on the grades of applicants.”
College Illiteracy, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rakehell’.
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 213 more...
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Gapeseeds and Muckworms - Compound De...
A list of compound derogatory names such as gapeseed, muckworm and lickspittle. Your one-word contributions to this list are welcome.
See sionnach's list derogatory terms I should use ...gapeseed, muckworm, lickspittle, makeweight, bootlicker, backscratcher, apple-polisher, backslapper, brownnoser, rakeshame, yesman, freeloader and 293 more...
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, slubberdegullion, bastard, hooligan, boor, churl, thug, cad, ne'er-do-well, miscreant, minx and 86 more...
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Killjoy et al
Namely, compounds consisting of a verb with a direct object immediately after it, without inflection
killjoy, lickspigot, quakebuttock, throttlebottom, scattergood, scapegrace, swillbowl, tosspot, breakfast, cutthroat, pickpocket, dreadnought and 84 more...
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Rakes
rake, rakes, brakes, hale, as thin as a rake, rakehell, horserake, star-wheel rake, hand-rake, rake helly, A child sitting i..., sulky rake and 47 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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erinnbatykefer's Words
ewer, lace, grenadine, wick, haruspex, augur, distal, proximal, supine, labyrinthine, rivers, monongahela and 176 more...
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Unsavoury Types
insults, epithets, etc.
drotchel, drossel, drazel, flutch, lollard, scobberlotcher, ragabash, faineant, cad, buffoon, martinet, tosspot and 116 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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wordhoard
dilatory, ataraxia, hermit, cabana, hut, dome, vestigial, porcine, crapulous, usufruct, curmudgeon, bombastic and 229 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 1387 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3255 more...
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Bad Guys
For more badness, see hernesheir's excellent Perponyms.
rascal, scoundrel, blackguard, mountebank, rapscallion, scamp, miscreant, knave, scapegrace, rogue, charlatan, hoodlum and 65 more...
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Vocabulary Words
I ought to use these more often.
vitriolic, acrimony, acerbic, bray, malaise, inquietude, tumult, abjure, aught, assuage, mete, pith and 29 more...
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The Sirens of Titan
Words gathered while reading The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut.
edwardian, rakehell, chrono-synclastic..., parvenu, chiton, dottle, ort, residua, narwhal, lulu, peyotl, peignoir and 49 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rakehell.
yarb He approached Baryba and stared at him with his glassy eyes, booming away: 'Well, and we never hoped to see you again, my boy. People were saying you got to be a regular rakehell. We thought the woman would ride you to death. That Chebotarikha, she's a glutton, she could gobble a man, bones and all.'
- Yevgeny Zamyatin, A Provincial Tale, in The Dragon & Other Stories (tr. Mirra Ginsburg) Jul 3, 2009