rakehell
Americannoun
adjective
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of rakehell
1540–50; alteration by folk etymology ( rake 1, hell ) of Middle English rakel (adj.) rash, rough, coarse, hasty (akin to rake 4 ); compare Old Norse reikall wandering, unsettled
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.
Breakfast with Pauling Agre claims he was a "rakehell" as an adolescent who enjoyed an idyllic childhood in a small town in Minnesota.
From Scientific American • Jun. 28, 2011
The same woman, Frances Braham, had married both the rakehell Waldegraves.
From The Guardian • Sep. 23, 2010
It deals with an exclusive Oxford undergraduate dining club, the Riot, named after an 18th century rakehell.
From The Guardian • Apr. 16, 2010
The rakehell son is an old favorite of French fiction, and so is the mean-spirited bourgeois father who fails to understand him.
From Time Magazine Archive
What else was the stinking rakehell seeking but to put himself right again in the eyes of a town that was nauseated with him and his excesses?
From The Lion's Skin by Sabatini, Rafael
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.
