A Rake Is a Garden Tool and a Dissolute Man
A rake gathers leaves. A separate rake is an immoral gentleman of the eighteenth century.
A rake is a toothed tool for gathering leaves, and separately a fashionable man of dissolute habits. The second is short for *rakehell*, a sixteenth-century word for someone so depraved you would have to rake through hell to find his equal. Hogarth's *A Rake's Progress* fixed the type in the eighteenth-century imagination. A third *rake* means slope or angle, as in the rake of a stage or a mast, from an unrelated Scandinavian root. The tool is Old English *raca*.
- A garden tool. *A leaf rake.*
- A dissolute man. *A notorious rake.*
- A slope. *The rake of the stage.*
- Rakehell — the full word. *A rakehell.*
- Old English — *raca*. *The tool.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | rake | A rake. |
| Verb | rake | Raking. |
| Adjective | rakish | Rakish. |
| Full form | rakehell | A rakehell. |
| Old English | raca | A rake. |
- He raked the leaves.Tool.
- A rake and a gambler.Character.
- The rake of the stage.Slope.
Rake phrases
- Rake in — collect money quickly
- Rake over — revisit an old grievance
- Rake up — bring something unwelcome to light
- Thin as a rake — very slender
- Rakish — jaunty, or disreputable
The tool is Old English *raca*. The dissolute man is short for *rakehell*. The slope is of Scandinavian origin.
Why is an immoral man called a rake?
It is short for rakehell, meaning someone you would have to rake through hell to match for wickedness.
What does the rake of a stage mean?
Its slope toward the audience, from a separate word of Scandinavian origin meaning to incline.