1. An implement consisting of a headpiece having teeth, and a long handle at right angles to it, — used
for collecting hay, or other light things which are spread over a large surface, or for breaking and smoothing
the earth.
2. A toothed machine drawn by a horse, — used for collecting hay or grain; a horserake.
3. [Perhaps a different word.] (Mining) A fissure or mineral vein traversing the strata vertically, or nearly
so; — called also rake-vein.
Gill rakes. (Anat.) See under 1st Gill.
Rake
(Rake), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Raked (rakt); p. pr. & vb. n. Raking.] [AS. racian. See 1st Rake.]
1. To collect with a rake; as, to rake hay; — often with up; as, he raked up the fallen leaves.
2. Hence: To collect or draw together with laborious industry; to gather from a wide space; to scrape
together; as, to rake together wealth; to rake together slanderous tales; to rake together the rabble of
a town.
3. To pass a rake over; to scrape or scratch with a rake for the purpose of collecting and clearing off
something, or for stirring up the soil; as, to rake a lawn; to rake a flower bed.
4. To search through; to scour; to ransack.
The statesman rakes the town to find a plot.
Swift. 5. To scrape or scratch across; to pass over quickly and lightly, as a rake does.
Like clouds that rake the mountain summits.
Wordsworth. 6. (Mil.) To enfilade; to fire in a direction with the length of; in naval engagements, to cannonade, as a
ship, on the stern or head so that the balls range the whole length of the deck.
To rake up. (a) To collect together, as the fire and cover with ashes. (b) To bring up; to search out
and bring to notice again; as, to rake up old scandals.
Rake
(Rake) v. i.
1. To use a rake, as for searching or for collecting; to scrape; to search minutely.
One is for raking in Chaucer for antiquated words.
Dryden. 2. To pass with violence or rapidity; to scrape along.
Pas could not stay, but over him did rake.
Sir P. Sidney. Rake
(Rake), n. [Cf. dial. Sw. raka to reach, and E. reach.] The inclination of anything from a perpendicular
direction; as, the rake of a roof, a staircase, etc.; especially (Naut.), the inclination of a mast or funnel,
or, in general, of any part of a vessel not perpendicular to the keel.
Rake
(Rake), v. i. To incline from a perpendicular direction; as, a mast rakes aft.
Raking course (Bricklaying), a course of bricks laid diagonally between the face courses in a thick
wall, to strengthen it.
