muckrake
Americanverb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
- muckraker noun
- muckraking noun
Etymology
Origin of muckrake
First recorded in 1675–85; obsolete muck rake “a rake for piling up muck or dung.” The modern sense was first recorded in 1850–55. See muck, rake 1
Explanation
To muckrake is to write stories revealing scandals about politicians and other powerful people. If you want to muckrake for a living, try getting a job writing for a tabloid. Someone who muckrakes is called a muckraker, and their job is to investigate public figures and expose anything they discover that's illegal or unethical. Many journalists muckrake during political campaigns, reporting on personal scandals, corruption, and sometimes simply gossip. The term muckrake initially meant, literally, "to rake muck," but in 1906 President Roosevelt popularized the "investigative reporting" meaning of the word.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She wasn’t there to muckrake but to grasp what happens when the object of laboratory study is not a molecule or a rat but a human being.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 29, 2018
And it’s not just foreign operatives that we must beware of - deep-pocketed special interests here can muckrake online with little or no accountability, too.
From Washington Times • May 9, 2018
At the 1906 Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with "the muckrake in his hand."
From US News • Mar. 17, 2015
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with “the muckrake in his hand” in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington.
From Washington Post • Mar. 17, 2011
You cannot do it if, like John Bunyan's man with the muckrake, you keep your eyes always down on the straw at your feet, and never lift them to the crown above.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Psalms by Maclaren, Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
