raff
See also: Raff
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English raf, from Old French raffer, of Germanic origin; compare German raffen, akin to rap (“to snatch”). Compare riffraff, rip (“to tear”).
Noun edit
raff (countable and uncountable, plural raffs)
- A promiscuous heap; a jumble; a large quantity; lumber; refuse.
- 1680, Isaac Barrow, A Discourse Concerning The Unity Of The Church:
- A raff of errors.
- The common rabble or mob; riffraff.
- 1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist[1]:
- Jostling with unemployed labourers of the lowest class, ballast-heavers, coal-whippers, brazen women, ragged children, and the raff and refuse of the river, he makes his way with difficulty along […]
- A low fellow; a churl.
Derived terms edit
Verb edit
raff (third-person singular simple present raffs, present participle raffing, simple past and past participle raffed)
- To sweep, snatch, draw, or huddle together; to take by a promiscuous sweep.
- 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769, →OCLC:
- Causes and effects which I thus raffe up together.
Etymology 2 edit
Alternative forms edit
Noun edit
raff (plural raffs)
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “raff”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Anagrams edit
German edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
raff
Welsh edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
raff
- Soft mutation of rhaff.
Mutation edit
Welsh mutation | |||
---|---|---|---|
radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
rhaff | raff | unchanged | unchanged |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
Further reading edit
- R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “raff”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies