Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The aspect of a rakish vessel.
  • noun The character of being rakish or dissolute; dissoluteness.
  • noun Jauntiness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being rakish.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The property of being rakish.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun stylishness as evidenced by a smart appearance
  • noun the quality of a rake

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I tell him he is as fickle as the winds, and as uncertain as the waves.”] [Footnote 77: We observe here, as in other parts of his early letters, that sort of display and boast of rakishness which is but too common a folly at this period of life, when the young aspirant to manhood persuades himself that to be profligate is to be manly.

    Life of Lord Byron Moore, Thomas, 1779-1852 1854

  • Got to be said though, I'll always have a soft spot for the show for the scene in the second ? series where "the rakish one from Armstrong and Miller" comes up against a "future Predator" armed only with his rakishness, cunning, and automatic weapons.

    Grace Dent's TV OD 2011

  • Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal It has something of a rising accent line on the side but that bit of rakishness is overpowered by the absolutely horizontal roof.

    Drive a Big Box 2011

  • The Quest has something of a rising accent line on the side but that bit of rakishness is overpowered by the absolutely horizontal roof, like Boris Karloff's flattop.

    For Your Big-Box Shopping, Drive a Big Box Dan Neil 2011

  • My friends liked him, despite his politics and rakishness, and so did I.

    Lea Lane: Rick Died As He Requested: And I Was There 2010

  • And yet, something about his rakishness was completely sincere.

    AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE DAVID GOODWILLIE 2010

  • And the fading film star deciphers a fresh paradise where he can practice his aging rakishness.

    The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson: Questions 2007

  • Its musicality, its meter, its rhyme, its alliteration all work hand in hand with the absurdly outrageous hyperbole and the cut throat rakishness of its intentions.

    The Reading : Kwame Dawes : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007

  • The last, one-tier-wonder thing is a marvel of rakishness!

    Love is in the Air... Jen 2009

  • I admire the steadfastness of Aung San Suu Kyi, the prolificacy of Stephen King, the single-mindedness of the Dalai Lama, the insight of Susan Sontag, the rakishness of Clive Owen.

    Annabelle Gurwitch: I Hate Happiness 2009

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