Definition of rake

• n. - 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.
• n. - A toothed machine drawn by a horse, -- used for collecting hay or grain; a horserake.
• n. - A fissure or mineral vein traversing the strata vertically, or nearly so; -- called also rake-vein.
• v. t. - To collect with a rake; as, to rake hay; -- often with up; as, he raked up the fallen leaves.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To search through; to scour; to ransack.
• v. t. - To scrape or scratch across; to pass over quickly and lightly, as a rake does.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. i. - To use a rake, as for searching or for collecting; to scrape; to search minutely.
• v. i. - To pass with violence or rapidity; to scrape along.
• n. - The inclination of anything from a perpendicular direction; as, the rake of a roof, a staircase, etc.
• n. - the inclination of a mast or funnel, or, in general, of any part of a vessel not perpendicular to the keel.
• v. i. - To incline from a perpendicular direction; as, a mast rakes aft.
• n. - A loose, disorderly, vicious man; a person addicted to lewdness and other scandalous vices; a debauchee; a roue.
• v. i. - To walk about; to gad or ramble idly.
• v. i. - To act the rake; to lead a dissolute, debauched life.