RA, as an inseparable prefix or preposition, is the Latin re, coming to us through the Italian and French, and primarily signifying again, repetition. [See Re.]

RABA'TE, verb transitive [See Beat and Abate.]

In falconry, to recover a hawk to the fist.

RABA'TO, noun A neckband or ruff. [Not in use.]

RAB'BET, verb transitive

1. To pare down the edge of a board or other piece of timber, for the purpose of receiving the edge of another piece by lapping and thus uniting the two.

2. To lap and unite the edges of boards, etc. In ship carpentry, to let the edge of a plank into the keel.

RAB'BET, noun A cut on the side of a board, etc. to fit it to another by lapping; a joint made by lapping boards, etc.

RAB'BETED, participle passive Pared down the edge of a board; united by a rabbet joint.

RAB'BETING, participle present tense Paring down the edge of a board; uniting by a rabbet joint.

RAB'BI,

RAB'BIN, noun

A title assumed by the Jewish doctors, signifying master or lord. This title is not conferred by authority, but assumed or allowed by courtesy to learned men.

RAB'BIN, n.

RABBIN'IC,

RABBIN'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to the Rabbins, or to their opinions, learning and language.

RABBIN'IC, noun The language or dialect of the Rabbins; the later Hebrew.

RAB'BINISM, noun A Rabbinic expression or phraseology; a peculiarity of the language of the Rabbins.

RAB'BINIST, noun Among the Jews, one who adhered to the Talmud and the traditions of the Rabbins, in opposition to the Caraites, who rejected the traditions.

RAB'BINITE, noun The same as rabbinist.

RAB'BIT, noun

A small quadruped of the genus Lepus, which feeds on grass or other herbage, and burrows in the earth. The rabbit is said to be less sagacious than the hare. It is a very prolific animal, and is kept in warrens for the sake of its flesh.

RAB'BLE, noun [Latin rabula, a brawler, from rabo, to rave.]

1. A tumultuous crowd of vulgar, noisy people; the mob; a confused disorderly crowd.

2. The lower class of people, without reference to an assembly; the dregs of the people.

RAB'BLEMENT, noun A tumultuous crowd of low people. [Not in use.]

RABDOL'OGY, noun [Gr. a rod, and discourse.]

A method of performing mathematical operations by little square rods.

RAB'ID, adjective [Latin rabidus, from rabio, rabo, to rage.]

Furious; raging; mad; as a rabid dog or wolf. It is particularly applied to animals of the canine genus, affected with the distemper called rabies, and whose bite communicates hydrophobia.

RAB'IDNESS, noun Furiousness; madness.

RAB'INET, noun A kind of smaller ordnance.

R'ACA, noun A Syriac word signifying empty, beggarly, foolish; a term of extreme contempt. Matthew 5:22.

RACE, noun [Latin radix and radius having the same original. This word coincides in origin with rod, ray, radiate, etc.]

1. The lineage of a family, or continued series of descendants from a parent who is called the stock. A race is the series of descendants indefinitely. Thus all mankind are called the race of Adam; the Israelites are of the race of Abraham and Jacob. Thus we speak of a race of kings, the race of Clovis or Charlemagne; a race of nobles, etc.

Hence the long race of Alban fathers come.

2. A generation; a family of descendants. A race of youthful and unhandled colts.

3. A particular breed; as a race of mules; a race of horses; a race of sheep.

Of such a race no matter who is king.

4. A root; as race-ginger, ginger in the root or not pulverized.

5. A particular strength or taste of wine; a kind of tartness.

RACE, noun [Latin gradior, gressus, with the prefix g. Eng. ride.]

1. A running; a rapid course or motion, either on the feet, on horseback or in a carriage, etc.; particularly, a contest in running; a running in competition for a prize.

The race was one of the exercises of the Grecian games.

I wield the gauntlet and I run the race

2. Any sunning with speed.

The flight of many birds is swifter than the race of any beast.

3. A progress; a course; a movement or progression of any kind.

My race of glory run.

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Hebrews 12:1.

4. Course; train; process; as the prosecution and race of the war. [Not now used.]

5. A strong or rapid current of water, or the channel or passage for such a current; as a mill-race.

6. By way of distinction, a contest in the running of horses; generally in the plural. The races commence in October.

RACE, verb intransitive To run swiftly; to run or contend in running. The animals raced over the ground.

RACEMA'TION, noun [Latin racemus, a cluster.]

1. A cluster, as of grapes.

2. The cultivation of cluster of grapes.

RAC'EME, noun [Latin racemus, a bunch of berries.

In botany a species of inflorescence, consisting of a peduncle with short lateral branches. It is simple or compound, naked or leafy, etc.

RACEMIF'EROUS, adjective [Latin racemus, a cluster, and fero, to bear.]

Bearing racemes or clusters; as the racemiferous fig-tree.

RAC'EMOUS, adjective Growing in racemes or clusters.

RA'CER, noun [from race.] a runner; one that contends in a race.

And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize.

RACH, noun A setting dog.

RA'CINESS, noun The quality of being racy.

RACK, noun [Eng. to reach. See Reach and Break.]

1. An engine of torture, used for extorting confessions from criminals or suspected persons. The rack is entirely unknown in free countries.

2. Torture; extreme pain; anguish.

A fit of the stone puts a king to the rack and makes him as miserable as it does the meanest subject.

3. Any instrument for stretching or extending any thing; as a rack for bending a bow.

4. A grate on which bacon is laid.

5. A wooden frame of open work in which hay is laid for horses and cattle for feeding.

6. The frame of bones of an animal; a skeleton. We say, a rack of bones.

7. A frame of timber on a ship's bowsprit.

RACK, noun [Eng. crag.]

The neck and spine of a fore quarter of veal or mutton.

[The two foregoing words are doubtless from one original.]

RACK, noun [See Reek.]

Properly, vapor; hence, thin flying broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapor in the sky.

The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack -

The great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, and, like this unsubstantial pageant, faded, leave not a rack behind.

It is disputed however, whether rack in this passage should not be wreck.

RACK, noun [for arrack. See Arrack.] Among the Tartars, a spirituous liquor made of mare's milk which has become sour and is then distilled.

RACK, verb intransitive [See the noun.]

1. Properly, to steam; to rise, as vapor.

[See Reek, which is the word used.]

2. To fly, as vapor or broken clouds.

RACK, verb transitive [from the noun.]

1. To torture; to stretch or strain on the rack or wheel; as, to rack a criminal or suspected person, to extort a confession of his guilt, or compel him to betray his accomplices.

2. To torment; to torture; to affect with extreme pain or anguish; as racked with deep despair.

3. To harass by exaction.

The landlords there shamefully rack their tenants.

4. To stretch; to strain vehemently; to wrest; as, to rack and stretch Scripture; to rack invention.

The wisest among the heathens racked their wits -

5. To stretch; to extend.

RACK, verb transitive

To draw off from the lees; to draw off, as pure liquor from its sediment; as, to rack cider or wine; to rack off liquor.

RACK'ED, participle passive

1. Tortured; tormented; strained to the utmost.

2. Drawn off, as liquor.

RACK'ER, noun One that tortures or torments; one that racks.

RACK'ET, noun [This word belong to the root of crack. See Rocket.]

1. A confused, clattering noise, less loud than uproar; applied to the confused sounds of animal voices, or such voices mixed with other sound. We say, the children make a racket; the racket of a flock of fowls.

2. Clamor; noisy talk.

RACK'ET, verb intransitive To make a confused noise or clamor; to frolic.

RACK'ET, noun

The instrument with which players at tennis strike the ball.

RACK'ET, verb transitive To strike as with a racket

RACK'ETY, adjective Making a tumultuous noise.

RACK'ING, participle present tense

1. Torturing; tormenting; straining; drawing off.

2. adjective Tormenting; excruciating; as a racking pain.

RACK'ING, noun

1. Torture; a stretching on the rack.

2. Torment of the mind; anguish; as the rackings of conscience.

3. The act of stretching cloth on a frame for drying.

4. The act of drawing from the sediment, as liquors.

RACOON', noun An American quadruped of the genus Ursus. It is somewhat larger than a fox, and its fur is deemed valuable, next to that of the beaver. This animal lodges in a hollow tree, feeds on vegetables, and its flesh is palatable food. It inhabits North America from Canada to the tropics.

RA'CY, adjective [Latin radix.]

Strong; flavorous; tasting of the soil; as racy cider; racy wine.

Rich racy verses, in which we the soil from which they come, taste, smell and see.

RAD, the old preterit tense of read.

RAD, RED, ROD, an initial or terminating syllable in names.

RAD'DLE, verb transitive

To twist; to wind together. [Not in use.]

RAD'DLE, noun [supra.] A long stick used in hedging; also, a hedge formed by interweaving the shoots and branches of trees or shrubs.

[I believe the two foregoing words are not used in the United States, and probably they are local.]

RAD'DOCK,

RA'DIAL, adjective [from Latin radius, a ray, a rod, a spoke. See Radius and Ray.]

Pertaining to the radius or to the fore arm of the human body; as the radial artery or nerve.

The radial muscles are two muscles of the fore arm, one of which bends the wrist, the other extends it.

Radial curves, in geometry, curves of the spiral kind, whose ordinates all terminate in the center of the including circle, and appear like so many semidiameters.

RA'DIAL, a. [from L. radius, a ray, a rod, a spoke. See Radius and Ray.]

RA'DIANCE,

RA'DIANCY, noun [Latin radians, radio, to beam or shoot rays. See Radius and Ray.]

Properly, brightness shooting in rays or beams; hence in general, brilliant or sparkling luster; vivid brightness; as the radiance of the sun.

The Son girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd of majesty divine.

RA'DIANCY, n. [L. radians, radio, to beam or shoot rays. See Radius and Ray.]

RA'DIANT, adjective Shooting or darting rays of light; beaming with brightness; emitting a vivid light or splendor; as the radiant sun.

Mark what radiant state she spreads.

Radiant in glittering arms and beamy pride.

RA'DIANT, noun In optics, the luminous point or object from which light emanates, that falls on a mirror or lens.

RA'DIANTLY, adverb With beaming brightness; with glittering splendor.

RA'DIATE, verb intransitive [Latin radio. See Ray.]

1. To issue in rays, as light; to dart, as beams of brightness; to shine.

Light radiates from luminous bodies directly to our eyes.

2. To issue and proceed in direct lines from a point.

RA'DIATE, verb transitive To enlighten; to illuminate; to shed light or brightness on. [Usually irradiate.]

RA'DIATE, adjective In botany, a rayed or radiate corol or flower, is a compound flower consisting of a disk, in which the corollets or florets are tubular and regular, and of a ray, in which the florets are irregular.

Or a flower with several semiflosculous florets set round a disk in form of a radiant star.

RA'DIATED, participle passive

1. Adorned with rays of light.

2. Having crystals diverging from a center.

RA'DIATING, participle present tense Darting rays of light; enlightening; as the radiating point in optics.

RADIA'TION, noun [Latin radiatio.]

1. The emission and diffusion of rays of light; beamy brightness.

2. The shooting of any thing from a center, like the diverging rays of light.

RAD'ICAL, adjective [Latin radicalis, from radix, root. See Race and Ray.]

1. Pertaining to the root or origin; original; fundamental; as a radical truth or error; a radical evil; a radical difference of opinions or systems.

2. Implanted by nature; native; constitutional; as the radical moisture of a body.

3. Primitive; original; underived; uncompounded; as a radical word.

4. Serving to origination.

5. In botany, proceeding immediately from the root; as a radical leaf or peduncle.

RAD'ICAL, noun

1. In philology, a primitive word; a radix, root, or simple underived uncompounded word.

2. A primitive letter; a letter that belongs to the radix.

3. in chimistry, an element, or a simple constituent part of a substance, which is incapable of decomposition.

That which constitutes the distinguishing part of an acid, by its union with oxygen.

Compound radical is the base of an acid composed of two or more substances. Thus a vegetable acid having a radical composed of hydrogen and carbon, is said to be an acid with a compound radical

Radical quantities, in algebra, quantities whose roots may be accurately expressed in numbers. The term is sometimes extended to all quantities under the radical sign.

RADICAL'ITY, noun

1. Origination.

2. A being radical; a quantity which has relation to a root.

RAD'ICALLY, adverb

1. Originally; at the origin or root; fundamentally; as a scheme or system radically wrong or defective.

2. Primitively; essentially; originally; without derivation.

These great orbs thus radically bright.

RAD'ICALNESS, noun The state of being radical or fundamental.

RAD'ICANT, adjective [Latin radicans.] In botany, rooting; as a radicant stem or leaf.

RAD'ICATE, verb transitive [Latin radicatus, radicor, from radix, root.]

To root; to plant deply and firmly; as radicated opinions; radicated knowledge.

Meditation will radicate these seeds.

RAD'ICATED, participle passive or adjective Deeply planted.

- Prejudices of a whole race of people radicated by a succession of ages.

RADICA'TION, noun [from radicate.]

1. The process of taking root deeply; as the radication of habits.

2. In botany, the disposition of the root of a plant with respect to the ascending and descending caudex and the radicles.

RAD'ICLE, noun [Latin radicula, from radix.]

1. That part of the seed of a plant which upon vegetating becomes the root.

2. The fibrous part of a root, by which the stock or main body of it is terminated.

RADIOM'ETER, noun [Latin radius, rod, and Gr. measure.]

The forestaff, an instrument for taking the altitudes of celestial bodies.

RAD'ISH, noun [See Ruddy.]

A plant of the genus Raphanus, the root of which is eaten raw. Horse-radish is of the genus Cochlearia. Water-radish is of the genus Sisymbrium.

RA'DIUS, noun [Latin id, a ray, a rod, a beam, a spoke, that is, a shoot; radio, to shine, that is, to dart beams. See Ray.]

1. In geometry, a right line drawn or extending from the center of a circle to the periphery, and hence the semidiameter of the circle. In trigonometry, the radius is the whole sine, or sine of 90 degrees.

2. In anatomy, the exterior bone of the fore arm, descending along with the ulna from the elbow to the wrist.

3. In botany, a ray; the outer part or circumference of a compound radiate flower, or radiated discous flower.

RA'DIX, noun [Latin a root.]

1. In etymology, a primitive word from which spring other words.

2. In logarithms, the base of any system of logarithms, or that number whose logarithm is unity. Thus in Briggs', or the common system of logarithms, the radix is 10; in Napier's, it is 2.7182818284. All other numbers are considered as some powers or roots of the radix the exponents of which powers or roots, constitute the logarithms of those numbers respectively.

3. In algebra, radix sometimes denotes the root of a finite expression, from which a series is derived.

R'AFF, verb transitive [Heb.]

To sweep; to snatch, draw or huddle together; to take by a promiscuous sweep. obsolete

Their causes and effects I thus raff up together.

R'AFF, noun

1. The sweepings of society; the rabble; the mob. This is used chiefly in the compound or duplicate, riff-raff.

2. A promiscuous heap or collection; a jumble.

RAF'FLE, verb intransitive [Heb. to strive. See Raff.]

To cast dice for a prize, for which each person concerned in the game lays down a stake, or hazards a part of the value; as, to raffle for a watch.

RAF'FLE, noun A game of chance, or lottery in which several persons deposit a part of the value of the thing, in consideration of the chance of gaining it. The successful thrower of the dice takes or sweeps the whole.

RAF'FLER, noun One who raffles.

RAF'FLING, participle present tense The act of throwing dice for a prize staked by a number.

R'AFT, noun [Gr. to sew that is, to fasten together, and allied to reeve; or Gr. whence a flooring. See Rafter and Roof.]

An assemblage of boards, planks or pieces of timber fastened together horizontally and floated down a stream; a float.

R'AFT, participle passive [Latin rapio; bereafian, to snatch away, to bereave.]

Torn; rent; severed. obsolete

R'AFTER, noun [Gr. to cover; a roof.]

A roof timber; a piece of timber that extends from the plate of a building to the ridge and serves to support the covering of the roof.

R'AFTERED, adjective Built or furnished with rafters.

R'AFTY, adjective Damp; musty. [Local.]

RAG, noun [Gr. a torn garment; tear; a rupture, a rock, a crag; to tear asunder.]

1. Any piece of cloth torn from the rest; a tattered cloth, torn or worn till its texture is destroyed. Linen and cotton rags are the chief materials of paper.

2. Garments worn out; proverbially, mean dress.

Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Proverbs 23:21.

And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.

3. A fragment of dress.

RAG. verb transitive

To scold; to rail. [Local.]

RAGAMUF'FIN, noun

A paltry fellow; a mean wretch.

RAG'-BOLT, noun An iron pin with barbs on its shank to retain it in its place.

RAGE, noun [Heb. to grind or gnash the teeth.]

1. Violent anger accompanied with furious words, gestures or agitation; anger excited to fury. Passion sometimes rises to rage

Torment and loud lament and furious rage

2. Vehemence or violent exacerbation of any thing painful; as the rage of pain; the rage of a fever; the rage of hunger or thirst.

3. Fury; extreme violence; as the rage of a tempest.

4. Enthusiasm; rapture.

Who brought green poesy to her perfect age, and made that art which was a rage

5. Extreme eagerness or passion directed to some object; as the rage for money.

You purchase pain with all that joy can give, and die of nothing but a rage to live.

RAGE, verb intransitive

1. To be furious with anger; to be exasperated to fury; to be violently agitated with passion.

At this he inly rag'd.

2. To be violent and tumultuous.

Why do the heathen rage? Psalms 2:1.

3. To be violently driven or agitated; as the raging sea or winds.

4. To ravage; to prevail without restraint, or with fatal effect; as, the plague rages in Cairo.

5. To be driven with impetuosity; to act or move furiously.

The chariots shall rage in the streets. Nahum 2.

The madding wheels of brazen chariots rag'd.

6. To toy wantonly; to sport. [Not in use.]

RA'GEFUL, adjective Full of rage; violent; furious.

RA'GERY, noun Wantonness. [Not used.]

RAGG, noun Rowley ragg a species of silicious stone, of a dusky or dark gray color, with shining crystals, of a granular texture, and by exposure to the air acquiring an ochery crust.

RAG'GED, adjective [from rag.]

1. Rent or worn into tatters, or till its texture is broken; as a ragged coat; a ragged sail.

2. Broken with rough edges; uneven; as a ragged rock.

3. Having the appearance of being broken or torn; jagged; rough with sharp or irregular points.

The moon appears, when looked upon through a good glass, rude and ragged

4. Wearing tattered clothes; as a ragged fellow.

5. Rough; rugged.

What shepherd owns those ragged sheep?

RAG'GEDNESS, noun

1. The state of being dressed in tattered clothes.

2. The state of being rough or broken irregularly; as the raggedness of a cliff.

RA'GING, participle present tense [from rage.]

1. Acting with violence or fury.

2. adjective Furious; impetuous; vehemently driven or agitated; as the raging sea or tempest.

RA'GING, noun Fury; violence; impetuosity. Jonah 1:15.

RA'GINGLY, adverb With fury; with violent impetuosity.

RAG'MAN, noun A man who collects or deals in rags, the materials of paper.

RAGOO',

RAGOUT, noun A sauce or seasoning for exciting a languid appetite; or a high seasoned dish, prepared with fish, flesh, greens and the like, stewed with salt, pepper, cloves, etc.

RAGOUT, n. A sauce or seasoning for exciting a languid appetite; or a high seasoned dish, prepared with fish, flesh, greens and the like, stewed with salt, pepper, cloves, &c.

RAG'STONE, noun A stone of the silicious kind, so named from its rough fracture. It is of a gray color, the texture obscurely laminar or rather fibrous, the lamins consisting of a congeries of grains of a quartzy appearance, coarse and rough. It effervesces with acids, and gives fire with steel. It is used for a whetstone without oil or water, for sharpening coarse cutting tools.

RAG'WORT, noun A plant of the genus Senecio.

RAIL, noun

1. A cross beam fixed at the ends in two upright posts.

[In New England, this is never called a beam; pieces of timber of the proper size for rails are called scantling.]

2. In the United States, a piece of timber cleft, hewed or sawed, rough or smooth, inserted in upright posts for fencing. The common rails among farmers, are rough, being used as they are split from the chestnut or other trees. The rails used in fences of boards or pickets round gentlemen's houses and gardens, are usually sawed scantling and often dressed with the plane.

3. A bar of wood or iron used for inclosing any place; the piece into which ballusters are inserted.

4. A series of posts connected with cross beams, by which a place is inclosed.

In New England we never call this series a rail but by the general term railing. In a picket fence, the pales or pickets rise above the rails; in a ballustrade, or fence resembling it, the ballusters usually terminate in the rails.

5. In a ship, a narrow plank nailed for ornament or security on a ship's upper works; also, a curved piece of timber extending from the bows of a ship to the continuation of its stern, to support the knee of the head, etc.

RAIL, noun A bird of the genus Rallus, consisting of many species. The water rail has a long slender body with short concave wings. The birds of the genus inhabit the slimy margins of rivers and ponds covered with marsh plants.

RAIL, noun

A woman's upper garment; retained in the word nightrail, but not used in the United States.

RAIL, verb transitive

1. To inclose with rails.

2. To range in a line.

RAIL, verb intransitive [Eng. to brawl.]

To utter reproaches; to scoff; to use insolent and reproachful language; to reproach or censure in opprobrious terms; followed by at or against, formerly by on.

And rail at arts he did not understand.

Lesbia forever on e rails.

RA'ILER, noun One who scoffs, insults, censures or reproaches with opprobrious language.

RA'ILING, participle present tense

1. Clamoring with insulting language; uttering reproachful words.

2. adjective Expressing reproach; insulting; as a railing accusation. 2 Peter 2:11.

RA'ILING, noun Reproachful or insolent language. 1 Peter 3:9.

RA'ILING, participle present tense Inclosing with rails.

RA'ILING, noun

1. A series of rails; a fence.

2. Rails in general; or the scantling for rails.

RA'ILINGLY, adverb With scoffing or insulting language.

RA'ILLERY, noun

Banter; jesting language; good humored pleasantry or slight satire; satirical merriment.

Let raillery be without malice or heat.

- Studies employed on low objects; the very naming of them is sufficient to turn them into raillery

RA'ILLEUR, noun A banterer; a jester; a mocker. [Not English nor in use.]

RA'IMENT, noun [for arrayment. See Array and Ray.]

1. Clothing in general; vestments; vesture; garments.

Genesis 24:53. Deuteronomy 8:4.

Living, both food and raiment she supplies.

2. A single garment.

[In this sense it is rarely used, and indeed is improper.]

RAIN, verb intransitive [It seems that rain is contracted from regen. It is the Gr. to rain to water, which we retain in brook, and the Latins, by dropping the prefix, in rigo, irrigo, to irrigate. The primary sense is to pour out, to drive forth. Heb.]

1. To fall in drops from the clouds, as water; used mostly with it for a nominative; as, it rains; it will rain; it rained, or it has rained.

2. To fall or drop like rain; as, tears rained at their eyes.

RAIN, verb transitive To pour or shower down from the upper regions, like rain from the clouds.

Then said the Lord to Moses, behold I will rain bread from heaven for you. Exodus 14:1.

God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating. Job 20:23.

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and horrible tempest. Psalms 11:6.

RAIN, noun The descent of water in drops from the clouds; or the water thus falling. rain is distinguished from mist, by the size of the drops, which are distinctly visible. When water falls in very small drops or particles, we call it mist, and fog is composed of particles so fine as to be not only indistinguishable, but to float or be suspended in the air.

RA'INBAT, adjective Beaten or injured by the rain. [Not used.]

RA'INBOW, noun A bow, or an arch of a circle, consisting of all the colors formed by the refraction and reflection of rays of light from drops of rain or vapor, appearing in the part of the hemisphere opposite to the sun. When the sun is at the horizon, the rainbow is a semicircle. The rainbow is called also iris.

The moon sometimes forms a bow or arch of light, more faint than that formed by the sun, and called lunar rainbow Similar bows at sea are called marine rainbows or sea bows.

RA'ININESS, noun [from rainy.] The state of being rainy.

RA'INY, adjective Abounding with rain; wet; showery; as rainy weather; a rainy day or season.

RAISE, verb transitive raze. [This word occurs often in the Gothic version of the gospels, Luke 3:8. John 6:40, 44. These verbs appear to be the Latin gradior, gressus, without the prefix. Latin to go to walk, to pass.]

1. To lift; to take up; to heave; to lift from a low or reclining posture; as, to raise a stone or weight; to raise the body in bed.

The angel smote Peter on the side and raised him up.

Acts 12:7.

2. To set upright; as, to raise a mast.

3. To set up; to erect; to set on its foundations and put together; as, to raise the frame of a house.

4. To build; as, to raise a city, a fort, a wall, etc.

I will raise forts against thee. Isaiah 29:3. Amos 9:11.

5. To rebuild.

They shall raise up the former desolations. Isaiah 61:4.

6. To form to some height by accumulation; as, to raise a heap of stones. Joshua 8:29.

7. To make; to produce; to amass; as, to raise a great estate out of small profits.

8. To enlarge; to amplify.

9. To exalt; to elevate in condition; as, to raise one from a low estate.

10. To exalt; to advance; to promote in rank or honor; as, to raise one to an office of distinction.

This gentleman came to be raised to great titles.

11. To enhance; to increase; as, to raise the value of coin; to raise the price of goods.

12. To increase in current value.

the plate pieces of eight were raised three pence in the piece.

13. To excite; to put in motion or action; as, to raise a tempest or tumult.

He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind. Psalms 107:1.

14. To excite to sedition, insurrection, war or tumult; to stir up. Acts 24:5.

AEneas then employs his pains in parts remote to raise the Tuscan swains.

15. To rouse; to awake; to stir up.

They shall not awake, not be raised out of their sleep. Job 14:12.

16. To increase in strength; to excite from languor or weakness. The pulse is raised by stimulants, sometimes by venesection.

17. To give beginning of importance to; to elevate into reputation; as, to raise a family.

18. To bring into being.

God vouchsafes to raise another word for him.

19. To bring from a state of death to life.

He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. Romans 4:24. 1 Corinthians 15:15.

20. To call into view from the state of separate spirits; as, to raise a spirit by spells and incantations.

21. To invent and propagate; to originate; to occasion; as, to raise a report or story.

22. To set up; to excite; to begin by loud utterance; as, to raise a shout or cry.

23. To utter loudly; to begin to sound or clamor. He raised his voice against the measures of administration.

24. To utter with more strength or elevation; to swell. Let the speaker raise his voice.

25. To collect; to obtain; to bring into a sum or fund. Government raises money by taxes, excise and imposts. Private persons and companies raise money for their enterprises.

26. To levy; to collect; to bring into service; as, to raise troops; to raise an army.

27. To give rise to.

28. To cause to grow; to procure to be produced, bred or propagated; as, to raise wheat, barley, hops, etc.; to raise horses, oxen or sheep.

[The English now use grow in regard to crops; as, to grow wheat. This verb intransitive has never been used in New England in a transitive sense, until recently some persons have adopted it from the English books. We always use raise but in New England it is never applied to the breeding of the human race, as it is in the southern states.]

29. To cause to swell, heave and become light; as, to raise dough or paste by yeast or leaven.

Miss Liddy can dance a jig and raise paste.

30. To excite; to animate with fresh vigor; as, to raise the spirits or courage.

31. To ordain; to appoint; or to call to and prepare; to furnish with gifts and qualification suited to a purpose; a Scriptural sense.

I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren. Deuteronomy 18:15.

For this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power. Exodus 9:16. Judges 2:16.

32. To keep in remembrance. Ruth 4:5.

33. To cause to exist by propagation. Matthew 22:24.

34. To incite; to prompt. Ezra 1:5.

35. To increase in intensity or strength; as, to raise the heat of a furnace.

36. In seamen's language, to elevate, as an object by a gradual approach to it; to bring to be seen at a greater angle; opposed to laying; as, to raise the land; to raise a point.

To raise a purchase, in seamen's language, is to dispose instruments or machines in such a manner as to exert any mechanical force required.

To raise a siege, is to remove a besieging army and relinquish an attempt to take the place by that mode of attack, or to cause the attempt to be relinquished.

RA'ISED, participle passive Lifted; elevated; exalted; promoted; set upright; built; made or enlarged; produced; enhanced; excited; restored to life; levied; collected; roused; invented and propagated; increased.

RA'ISER, noun One who raises; that which raises; one that builds; one that levies or collects; one that begins, produces or propagates.

RAISIN, noun razn.

A dried grape. Grapes are suffered to remain on the vines till they are perfectly ripe, and then dried in an oven, or by exposure to the heat of the sun. Those dried in the sun are the sweetest.

RA'ISING, participle present tense Lifting; elevating; setting upright; exalting; producing; enhancing; restoring to life; collecting; levying; propagating, etc.

RA'ISING, noun

1. The act of lifting, setting up, elevating, exalting, producing, or restoring to life.

2. In New England, the operation or work of setting up the frame of a building.

RA'JA, noun [Latin rex, regis.] In India, a prince. some of the rajahs are said to be independent princes; others are tributary to the Mogul.

RA'JAH,

RA'JAHSHIP, noun The dignity or principality of a rajah

RAKE, noun

An instrument consisting of a head-piece in which teeth are inserted, and a long handle; used for collecting hay or other light things which are spread over a large surface, or in gardens for breaking and smoothing the earth.

RAKE, noun

A loose, disorderly, vicious man; a man addicted to lewdness and other scandalous vices.

RAKE, noun

1. The projection of the upper parts of a ship, at the height of the stem and stern, beyond the extremities of the keel. The distance between a perpendicular line from the extremity of stem or stern to the end of the keel, is the length of the rake; one the fore-rake, the other the rake-aft.

2. The inclination of a mast from a perpendicular direction.

RAKE, verb transitive [Latin frico.]

1. Properly, to scrape; to rub or scratch with something rough; as, to rake the ground.

2. To gather with a rake; as, to rake hay or barley.

3. To clear with a rake; to smooth with a rake; as, to rake a bed in a garden; to rake land.

4. To collect or draw together something scattered; to gather by violence; as, to rake together wealth; to rake together slanderous tales; to rake together the rabble of a town.

5. To scour; to search with eagerness all corners of a place.

The statesman rakes the town to find a plot.

6. In the military art, to enfilade; to fire in a direction with the length of any thing; particularly in naval engagement, to rake is to cannonade a ship on the stern or head, so that the

balls range the whole length of the deck. Hence the phrase, to rake a ship fore and aft.

To rake up, applied to fire, is to cover the fire with ashes.

RAKE, verb intransitive

1. To scrape; to scratch into for finding something; to search minutely and meanly; as, to rake into a dunghill.

2. To search with minute inspection into every part.

One is for raking in Chaucer for antiquated words.

3. To pass with violence or rapidity.

Pas could not stay, but over him did rake

4. To seek by raking; as, to rake for oysters.

5. To lead a dissolute, debauched life.

6. To incline from a perpendicular direction; as, a mast rakes aft.

RA'KED, participle passive Scraped; gathered with a rake; cleaned with a rake; cannonaded fore and aft.

RA'KEHELL, noun

A lewd, dissolute fellow; a debauchee; a rake.

RA'KEHELLY, adjective Dissolute; wild.

RA'KER, noun One that rakes.

RA'KESHAME, noun A vile dissolute wretch.

RA'KING, participle present tense

1. Scraping; gathering with a rake; cleaning and smoothing with a rake; cannonading in the direction of the length; inclining.

And raking chase-guns through our sterns they send.

2. adjective That rakes; as a raking fire or shot.

RA'KING, noun

1. The act of using a rake; the act or operation of collecting with a rake, or of cleaning and smoothing with a rake.

2. The space of ground raked at once; or the quantity of hay, etc. collected by once passing the rake.

RA'KISH, adjective Given to a dissolute life; lewd; debauched.

RA'KISHNESS, noun Dissolute practices.

RAL'LY, verb transitive [This seems to be a compound of re, ra, and lier, Latin ligo, to unite.]

1. To reunite; to collect and reduce to order troops dispersed or thrown into confusion.

2. To collect; to unite; as things scattered.

RAL'LY, verb transitive [See Raillery.]

To treat with good humor and pleasantry, or with slight contempt or satire, according to the nature of the case.

Honeycomb rallies me upon a country life.

Strephon had long confess'd his am'rous pain, which gay Corinna rallied with disdain.

RAL'LY, verb intransitive

1. To assemble; to unite.

Innumerable parts of matter chanced then to rally together and to form themselves into this new world.

2. To come back to order.

The Grecians rally and their pow'rs unite.

3. To use pleasantry or satirical merriment.

RAL'LY, noun

1. The act of bringing disordered troops to their ranks.

2. Exercise of good humor or satirical merriment.

RAM, noun [See the Verb.]

1. The male of the sheep or ovine genus; in some parts of England called a tup. In the United States, the word is applied, I believe, to no other male, except in the compound ram-cat.

2. In astronomy, Aries, the sign of the zodiac which the sun enters on the 21st of March, or a constellation of fixed stars in the figure of a ram It is considered the first of the twelve signs.

3. An engine of war, used formerly for battering and demolishing the walls of cities; called a battering-ram. [See Battering-ram.]

RAM, verb transitive [Latin ramus, a branch that is a shoot or thrust. Heb. See Cram.]

1. To thrust or drive with violence; to force in; to drive down or together; as, to ram down a cartridge; to ram piles into the earth.

2. To drive, as with a battering ram

3. To stuff; to cram.

RAM'ADAN, noun Among the Mohammedans, a solemn season of fasting.

RAM'AGE, noun [Latin ramus, a branch.]

1. Branches of trees. [Not in use.]

2. The warbling of birds sitting on boughs.

3. [See Rummage.]

RAM'BLE, verb intransitive

1. To rove; to wander; to walk, ride or sail from place to place, without any determinate object in view; or to visit many places; to rove carelessly or irregularly; as, to ramble about the city; to ramble over the country.

Never ask leave to go abroad, for you will be thought an idle rambling fellow.

2. To go at large without restraint and without direction.

3. To move without certain direction.

O're his ample sides, the rambling sprays luxuriant shoot.

RAM'BLE, noun a roving; a wandering; a going or moving from place to place without any determinate business or object; an irregular excursion.

Coming home after a short Christmas ramble I found a letter upon my table.

RAM'BLER, noun One that rambles; a rover; a wanderer.

RAM'BLING, participle present tense Roving; wandering; moving or going irregularly.

RAM'BLING, noun A roving; irregular excursion.

RAM'BOOZE,

RAM'BUSE, noun a drink made of wine, ale, eggs and sugar in winter, or of wine, milk, sugar and rose water in summer.

RAM'BUSE, n. a drink made of wine, ale, eggs and sugar in winter, or of wine, milk, sugar and rose water in summer.

RAM'EKIN,

RAM'ENTS, noun [Latin ramenta, a chip.]

1. Scrapings; shavings; . [Not used.]

2. In botany, loose scales on the stems of plants.

RA'MEOUS, adjective [Latin ramus, a branch.] In botany, belonging to a branch; growing on or shooting from a branch.

RAM'EQUINS, noun In cookery, small slices of bread covered with a farce of cheese and eggs.

RAMIFICA'TION, noun [Latin ramus, a branch.]

1. The process of branching or shooting branches from a stem.

2. A branch; a small division proceeding from a main stock or channel; as the ramifications of a family; the ramifications of an artery.

3. A division or subdivision; as the ramifications of a subject or scheme.

4. In botany, the manner in which a tree produces its branches or boughs.

5. The production of figures resembling branches.

RAM'IFIED, participle passive divided into branches.

RAM'IFY, verb transitive [Latin ramus, a branch, and facio, to make.]

To divide into branches or parts; as, to ramify an art, a subject or scheme.

RAM'IFY, verb intransitive

1. To shoot into branches, as the stem of a plant.

When the asparagus begins to ramify -

2. To be divided or subdivided; as a main subject or scheme.

RAM'IFYING, participle present tense shooting into branches or divisions.

RAM'ISH, adjective

Rank; strong scented.

RAM'ISHNESS, noun [from ram.] Rankness; a strong scent.

RAM'MED, participle passive [See Ram.] Driven forcibly.

RAM'MER, noun

1. One that rams or drives.

2. An instrument for driving any thing with force; as a rammer for driving stones or piles, or for beating the earth to more solidity.

3. A gun-stick; a ramrod; a rod for forcing down the charge of a gun.

RAM'MING, participle present tense Driving with force.

RAMOON', noun A tree of America.

RA'MOUS, adjective [Latin ramosus, from ramus, a branch.]

1. In botany, branched, as a stem or root; having lateral divisions.

2. Branchy; consisting of branches; full of branches.

RAMP, verb intransitive [See Ramble and Romance.]

1. To climb, as a plant; to creep up.

Plants furnished with tendrils catch hold, and so ramping on trees, they mount to a great height.

2. To spring; to leap; to bound; to prance; to frolic.

Their bridles they would champ - and trampling the fine element, would fiercely ramp

Sporting the lion ramp'd.

[In the latter sense, the word is usually written and pronounced romp; the word being originally pronounced with a broad.]

RAMP, noun A leap; a spring; a bound.

RAMPAL'LIAN, noun A mean wretch. [Not in use.]

RAMP'ANCY, noun [from rampant.] Excessive growth or practice; excessive prevalence; exuberance; extravagance; as the rampancy of vice.

RAMP'ANT, adjective [See Ramp and Ramble.]

1. Overgrowing the usual bounds; rank in growth; exuberant; as rampant weeds.

2. Overleaping restraint; as rampant vice.

3. In heraldry, applied to the lion, leopard or other beast, rampant denotes the animal reared and standing on his hind legs, in the posture of climbing. It differs from saliant, which indicates the posture of springing or making a sally.

The lion rampant shakes his brinded mane.

RAM'PART, noun [Hence we see rampart is from Latin reparo; re and paro. See Parry and Repair.]

1. In fortification, an elevation or mound of earth round a place, capable of resisting cannon shot, and formed into bastions, curtains, etc.

No standards from the hostile ramparts torn.

2. That which fortifies and defends from assault; that which secures safety.

RAM'PART, verb transitive To fortify with ramparts. [Not in use.]

RAM'PION, noun [from ramp.] The name of several plants; as the common esculent rampion a species of Campanula; the crested rampion a species of Lobelia; the horned rampion a species of Phyteuma.

RAMP'IRE, noun The same as rampart; but obsolete.

RAM'SONS, noun A plant, a species of Allium.

RAN, the preterit tense of run. In old writers, open robbery.

RANCES'CENT, adjective [Latin ranceo, to be rank.] Becoming rancid or sour.

RANCH, verb transitive [corrupted from wrench.] To sprain; to injure by violent straining or contortion. [Not used.]

RAN'CID, adjective [Latin rancidus, from ranceo, to be rank. This is the Eng. rank, luxuriant in growth.]

Having a rank smell; strong scented; sour; musty; as rancid oil.

RANCID'ITY,

RAN'CIDNESS, noun The quality of being rancid; a strong, sour scent, as of old oil.

The rancidity of oils may be analogous to the oxidation of metals.

RAN'CIDNESS, n. The quality of being rancid; a strong, sour scent, as of old oil.

RAN'COR, noun [Latin from ranceo, to be rank.]

1. The deepest malignity or spite; deep seated and implacable malice; inveterate enmity. [This is the strongest term for enmity which the English language supplies.]

It issues from the rancor of a villain.

2. Virulence; corruption.

RAN'COROUS, adjective Deeply malignant; implacably spiteful or malicious; intensely virulent.

So flam'd his eyes with rage and ranc'rous ire.

Rancorous opposition to the gospel of Christ.

RAN'COROUSLY, adverb With deep malignity or spiteful malice.

RAND, noun

A border; edge; margin; as the rand of a shoe.

RAN'DOM, noun

1. A roving motion or course without direction; hence, want of direction, rule or method; hazard; chance; used in the phrase, at random that is, without a settled point of direction; at hazard.

2. Course; motion; progression; distance of a body thrown; as the furthest random of a missile weapon.

RAN'DOM, adjective

1. Done at hazard or without settled aim or purpose; left to chance; as a random blow.

2. Uttered or done without previous calculation; as a random guess.

RAN'DY, adjective Disorderly; riotous. [Not used or local.]

RANE,

RANEDEER, noun

A species of deer found in the northern parts of Europe and Asia. He has large branched palmated horns, and travels with great speed. Among the Laplanders, he is a substitute for the horse, the cow, the goat and the sheep, as he furnishes food, clothing and the means of conveyance. This animal will draw a sled on the snow more than a hundred miles in a day.

RANEDEER, n.

RAN'FORCE, noun The ring of a gun next to the vent.

[I do not find this word in modern books.]

RANGE, verb transitive

1. To set in a row or in rows; to place in a regular line, lines or ranks; to dispose in the proper order; as, to range troops in a body; to range men or ships in the order of battle.

2. To dispose in proper classes, orders or divisions; as, to range plants and animals in genera and species.

3. To dispose in a proper manner; to place in regular method; in a general sense. range and arrange are used indifferently in the same sense.

4. To rove over; to pass over.

Teach him to range the ditch and force the brake.

[This use is elliptical, over being omitted.]

5. To sail or pass in a direction parallel to or near; as, to range the coast, that is, along the coast.

RANGE, verb intransitive

1. To rove at large; to wander without restraint or direction.

As a roaring lion and a ranging bear. Proverbs 28:1.

2. To be placed in order; to be ranked.

'Tis better to be lowly born, and range with humble livers in content -

[In this sense, rank is now used.]

3. To lie in a particular direction.

Which way thy forests range -

We say, the front of a house ranges with the line of the street.

4. To sail or pass near or in the direction of; as, to range along the coast.

RANGE, noun [See Rank.]

1. A row; a rank; things in a line; as a range of buildings; a range of mountains; ranges of colors.

2. A class; an order.

The next range of beings above him are the immaterial intelligences -

3. A wandering or roving; excursion.

He may take a range all the world over.

4. Space or room for excursion.

A man has not enough range of thought -

5. Compass or extent of excursion; space taken in by any thing extended or ranked in order; as the range of Newton's thought. No philosopher has embraced a wider range

Far as creation's ample range extends.

6. The step of a ladder. [Corrupted in popular language to rung.]

7. A kitchen grate.

8. A bolting sieve to sift meal.

9. In gunnery, the path of a bullet or bomb, or the line it describes from the mouth of the piece to the point where it lodges; or the whole distance which it passes. When a cannon lies horizontally, it is called the right level, or point blank range; when the muzzle is elevated to 45 degrees, it is called the utmost range To this may be added the ricochet, the rolling or bounding shot, with the piece elevated from three to six degrees.

RANGED, participle passive Disposed in a row or line; placed in order; passed in roving placed in a particular direction.

RANGER, noun

1. One that ranges; a rover; a robber. [Now little used.]

2. A dog that beats the ground.

3. In England, a sworn officer of a forest, appointed by the king's letters patent, whose business is to walk through the forest, watch the deer, present trespasses, etc.

RANGERSHIP, noun The office of the keeper of a forest or park.

RANGING, participle present tense Placing in a row or line; disposing in order, method or classes; roving; passing near and in the direction of.

RANGING, noun The act of placing in lines or in order; a roving, etc.

RANK, noun [Heb.]

1. A row or line, applied to troops; a line of men standing abreast or side by side, and as opposed to file, a line running the length of a company, battalion or regiment. Keep your ranks; dress your ranks.

Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds in ranks and squadrons and right form of war.

2. Ranks, in the plural, the order of common soldiers; as, to reduce an officer to the ranks.

3. A row; a line of things, or things in a line; as a rank of osiers.

4. Degree; grade; in military affairs; as the rank of captain, colonel or general; the rank of vice-admiral.

5. Degree of elevation in civil life or station; the order of elevation or of subordination. We say, all ranks and orders of men; every man's dress and behavior should correspond with his rank; the highest and the lowest ranks of men or of other intelligent beings.

6. Class; order; division; any portion or number of things to which place, degree or order is assigned. Profligate men, by their vices, sometimes degrade themselves to the rank of brutes.

7. Degree of dignity, eminence or excellence; as a writer of the first rank; a lawyer of high rank.

These are all virtues of a meaner rank.

8. Dignity; high place or degree in the orders of men; as a man of rank.

Rank and file, the order of common soldiers. Ten officers and three hundred rank and file fell in the action.

To fill the ranks, to supply the whole number, or a competent number.

To take rank, to enjoy precedence, or to have the right of taking a higher place. In Great Britain, the king's sons take rank of all the other nobles.

RANK, adjective [Latin rancidus, from ranceo, to smell strong. The primary sense of the root is to advance, to shoot forward, to grow luxuriantly, whence the sense of strong, vigorous.]

1. Luxuriant in growth; being of vigorous growth; as rank grass; rank weeds.

Seven ears came up upon one stalk, rank and good. Genesis 41:1.

2. Causing vigorous growth; producing luxuriantly; very rich and fertile; as, land is rank.

3. Strong scented; as rank smelling rue.

4. Rancid; musty; as oil of a rank smell.

5. Inflamed with venereal appetite.

6. Strong to the taste; high tasted.

Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they feed.

7. Rampant; high grown; raised to a high degree; excessive; as rank pride; rank idolatry.

I do forgive thy rankest faults.

8. Gross; coarse.

9. Strong; clinching. Take rank hold. Hence,

10. Excessive; exceeding the actual value; as a rank modus in law.

To set rank, as the iron of a plane, to set it so as to take off a thick shaving.

RANK, verb transitive

1. To place abreast or in a line.

2. To place in a particular class, order or division.

Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.

Heresy is ranked with idolatry and witchcraft.

3. To dispose methodically; to place in suitable order.

Who now shall rear you to the sun, or rank your tribes?

Ranking all things under general and special heads.

RANK, verb intransitive

1. To be ranged; to be set or disposed; as in a particular degree, class, order or division.

Let that one article rank with the rest.

2. To be placed in a rank or ranks.

Go, rank in tribes, and quit the savage wood.

3. To have a certain grade or degree of elevation in the orders of civil or military life. He ranks with a major. He ranks with the first class of poets. He ranks high in public estimation.

RANK, the old preterit tense of ring. [Nearly obsolete.]

RANK'ED, participle passive Placed in a line; disposed in an order or class; arranged methodically.

RANK'ER, noun One that disposes in ranks; one that arranges.

RANK'ING, participle present tense Placing in ranks or lines; arranging; disposing in orders or classes; having a certain rank or grade.

RANK'LE, verb intransitive [from rank.]

1. To grow more rank or strong; to be inflamed; to fester; as a rankling wound.

A malady that burns and rankles inward.

2. To become more violent; to be inflamed; to rage; as rankling malice; rankling envy. Jealousy rankles in the breast.

RANK'LY, adverb

1. With vigorous growth; as, grass or weeks grow rankly

2. Coarsely; grossly.

RANK'NESS, noun

1. Vigorous growth; luxuriance; exuberance; as the rankness of plants or herbage.

2. Exuberance; excess; extravagance; as the rankness of pride; the rankness of joy.

3. Extraordinary strength.

The crane's pride is in the rankness of her wing.

4. Strong taste; as the rankness of flesh or fish.

5. Rancidness; rank smell; as the rankness of oil.

6. Excessiveness; as the rankness of a composition or modus.

RAN'NY, noun The shrew-mouse.

RAN'SACK, verb transitive [Eng. rand, and ran is rapine. The last syllable coincides with the English verb to sack, to pillage.]

1. To plunder; to pillage completely; to strip by plundering; as, to ransack a house or city.

Their vow is made to ransack Troy.

2. To search thoroughly; to enter and search every place or part. It seems often to convey the sense of opening doors and parcels, and turning over things in search; as, to ransack files of papers.

I ransack the several caverns.

3. To violate; to ravish; to deflower; as ransacked chastity. [Not in use.]

RAN'SACKED, participle passive Pillaged; search narrowly.

RAN'SACKING, participle present tense Pillaging; searching narrowly.

RAN'SOM, noun

1. The money or price paid for the redemption of a prisoner or slave, or for goods captured by an enemy; that which procures the release of a prisoner or captive, or of captured property, and restores the one to liberty and the other to the original owner.

By his captivity in Austria, and the heavy ransom he paid for his liberty, Richard was hindered from pursuing the conquest of Ireland.

2. Release from captivity, bondage or the possession of an enemy. They were unable to procure the ransom of the prisoners.

3. In law, a sum paid for the pardon of some great offense and the discharge of the offender; or a fine paid in lieu of corporal punishment.

4. In Scripture, the price paid for a forfeited life, or for delivery or release from capital punishment.

Then he shall give for the ransom of his life, whatever is laid upon him. Exodus 21:30.

5. The price paid for procuring the pardon of sins and the redemption of the sinner from punishment.

Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom Job 33:24.

The Son of man came - to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28. Mark 10:45.

RAN'SOM, verb transitive

1. To redeem from captivity or punishment by paying an equivalent; applied to persons; as, to ransom prisoners from an enemy.

2. To redeem from the possession of an enemy by paying a price deemed equivalent; applied to goods or property.

3. In Scripture, to redeem from the bondage of sin, and from the punishment to which sinners are subjected by the divine law.

The ransomed of the Lord shall return. Isaiah 35:10.

4. To rescue; to deliver. Hosea 13.

RAN'SOMED, participle passive Redeemed or rescued from captivity, bondage or punishment by the payment of an equivalent.

RAN'SOMER, noun One that redeems.

RAN'SOMING, participle present tense Redeeming from captivity, bondage or punishment by giving satisfaction to the possessor; rescuing; liberating.

RAN'SOMLESS, adjective Free from ransom.

RANK, verb intransitive [Heb.]

To rave in violent, high sounding or extravagant language, without correspondent dignity of thought; to be noisy and boisterous in words or declamation; as a ranting preacher.

Look where my ranking host of the garter comes.

RANK, noun High sounding language without dignity of thought; boisterous, empty declamation; as the rant of fanatics.

This is stoical rant, without any foundation in the nature of man, or reason of things.

RANT'ER, noun A noisy talker; a boisterous preacher.

RANT'ING, participle present tense Uttering high sounding words without solid sense; declaiming or preaching with boisterous empty words.

RANT'IPOLE, adjective [from rant.] Wild; roving; rakish. [A low word.]

RANT'IPOLE, verb intransitive To run about wildly. [Low.]

RANT'ISM, noun The practice or tenets of ranters.

RANT'Y, adjective Wild; noisy; boisterous.

RAN'ULA, noun [Latin rana, a frog; dim. a little frog.]

A swelling under the tongue, similar to the encysted tumors in different parts of the body.

RANUN'CULUS, noun [Latin from rana, a frog.]

In botany, crowfoot, a genus of plants of many species, some of them beautiful flowering plants, particularly the Asiatic, or Turkey and Persian ranunculus which is diversified with many rich colors.

RAP, verb intransitive [Latin rapio, rapidus, rapid.]

To strike with a quick sharp blow; to knock; as, to rap on the door.

RAP, verb transitive To strike with a quick blow; to knock.

with one great peal they rap the door.

To rap out, to utter with sudden violence; as, to rap out an oath. [In the popular language of the United States, it is often pronounced rip, to rip out an oath; Latin crepo.]

RAP, verb transitive

1. to seize and bear away, as the mind or thoughts; to transport out of one's self; to affect with ecstasy or rapture; as rapt into admiration.

I'm rapt with joy to see my Marcia's tears.

RAPt into future times the bar begun.

2. To snatch or hurry away.

And rapt with whirling wheels.

RAPt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.

3. To seize by violence.

4. To exchange; to truck. [Low and not used.]

To rap and rend, to seize and tear or strip; to fall on and plunder; to snatch by violence. They brought off all they could rap and rend. [See Rend.]

RAP, noun a quick smart blow; as a rap on the knuckles.

RAPA'CIOUS, adjective [Latin rapax, from rapio, to seize. See Rap.]

1. Given to plunder; disposed or accustomed to seize by violence; seizing by force; as a rapacious enemy.

Well may thy lord, appeas'd redeem thee quite from death's rapacious claim.

2. Accustomed to seize for food; subsisting on prey or animals seized by violence; as a rapacious tiger; a rapacious fowl.

RAPA'CIOUSLY, adverb By rapine; by violent robbery or seizure.

RAPA'CIOUSNESS, noun The quality of being rapacious; disposition to plunder or to exact by oppression.

RAPAC'ITY, noun [Latin rapacitas, from rapax, rapio.]

1. Addictedness to plunder; the exercise of plunder; the act or practice of seizing by force; as the rapacity of a conquering army; the rapacity of pirates; the rapacity of a Turkish pashaw; the rapacity of extortioners.

2. Ravenousness; as the rapacity of animals.

3. The act or practice of extorting or exacting by oppressive injustice.

RAPE, noun [Latin rapio, raptus. See Rap.]

1. In a general sense, a seizing by violence; also, a seizing and carrying away by force, as females.

2. In law, the carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly and against her will.

3. Privation; the act of seizing or taking away.

And ruin'd orphans of thy rapes complain.

4. something taken or seized and carried away.

Where now are all my hopes? oh, never more shall they revive, nor death her rapes restore.

5. Fruit plucked from the cluster.

6. A division of a county in Sussex, in England; or an intermediate division between a hundred and a shire, and containing three or four hundreds.

RAPE, noun [Latin rapa, Gr.]

A plant of the genus Brassica, called also cole-rape and cole-seed, and of which the navew or French turnip is a variety.

The broom-rape is of the genus Orobanche.

RA'PEROOT. [See Rape.]

RA'PESEED, noun The seed of the rape, from which oil is expressed.

RAP'ID, adjective [Latin rapidus, from rapio, the primary sense of which is to rush.]

1. Very swift or quick; moving with celerity; as a rapid stream; a rapid flight; a rapid motion.

Part shun the goal with rapid wheels.

2. Advancing with haste or speed; speedy in progression; as rapid growth; rapid improvement.

3. Of quick utterance of words; as a rapid speaker.

RAPID'ITY, noun [Latin rapiditas.]

1. Swiftness; celerity; velocity; as the rapidity of a current; the rapidity of motion of any kind.

2. Haste in utterance; as the rapidity of speech or pronunciation.

3. Quickness of progression or advance; as rapidity of growth or improvement.

RAP'IDLY, adverb

1. With great speed, celerity or velocity; swiftly; with quick progression; as, to run rapidly; to grow or improve rapidly

2. With quick utterance; as, to speak rapidly

RAP'IDNESS, noun Swiftness; speed; celerity; rapidity.

RAP'IDS, noun plural The part of a river where the current moves with more celerity than the common current. rapids imply a considerable descent of the earth, but not sufficient to occasion a fall of the water, or what is called a cascade or cataract.

RA'PIER, noun A small sword used only in thrusting.

RAP'IL,

RAPIL'LO, noun Pulverized volcanic substances.

RAPIL'LO, n. Pulverized volcanic substances.

RAP'INE, noun [Latin rapina; rapio, to seize.]

1. The act of plundering; the seizing and carrying away of things by force.

2. Violence; force.

RAP'INE, verb transitive To plunder.

RAPPAREE', noun A wild Irish plunderer; so called from rapery, a half pike that he carries.

RAPPEE', noun A coarse kind of snuff.

RAP'PER, noun [from rap.]

1. One that raps or knocks.

2. The knocker of a door. [Not in common use.]

3. An oath or a lie. [Not in use.]

RAP'PORT, noun Relation; proportion. [Not in use.]

RAPT, participle passive [from rap.] Transported; ravished.

RAPT, verb transitive To transport or ravish. [Not legitimate or in use.]

RAPT, noun

1. An ecstasy; a trance.

2. Rapidity. [Not in use.]

RAP'TER,

RAP'TOR, noun [Latin raptor.] A ravisher; a plunderer.

RAP'TOR, n. [l. raptor.] A ravisher; a plunderer.

RAP'TURE, noun [Latin raptus, rapio.]

1. A seizing by violence. [Little used.]

2. Transport; ecstasy; violence of a pleasing passion; extreme joy or pleasure.

Music when thus applied, raises in the mind of the hearer great conceptions; it strengthens devotion and advances praise into rapture

3. Rapidity with violence; a hurrying along with velocity; as rolling with torrent rapture

4. Enthusiasm; uncommon heat of imagination.

You grow correct, that once with rapture writ.

RAP'TURED, adjective Ravished; transported.

[But enraptured is generally used.]

RAP'TURIST, noun An enthusiast.

RAP'TUROUS, adjective Ecstatic; transporting; ravishing; as rapturous joy, pleasure or delight.

RARE, adjective [Latin rarus, thin.]

1. Uncommon; not frequent; as a rare event; a rare phenomenon.

2. Unusually excellent; valuable to a degree seldom found.

RARE work, all fill'd with terror and delight.

Above the rest I judge one beauty rare

3. Thinly scattered.

4. Thin; porous; not dense; as a rare and attenuate substance.

Water is nineteen times lighter and by consequence nineteen times rarer than gold.

5. Nearly raw; imperfectly roasted or boiled; as rare beef or mutton; eggs roasted rare

RA'REESHOW, noun [rare and show.] A show carried in a box.

RAREFAC'TION, noun [See Rarefy.]

The act or process of expanding or distending bodies, by separating the parts and rendering the bodies more rare or porous, by which operation they appear under a larger bulk, or require more room, without an accession of new matter; opposed to condensation; as the rarefaction of air.

RAR'EFIABLE, adjective Capable of being rarefied.

RAR'EFY, verb transitive [Latin rarefacio; rarus, rare, and facio, to make.]

To make thin and porous or less dense; to expand or enlarge a body without adding to it any new portion of its own matter; opposed to condense.

RAR'EFY, verb intransitive To become thin and porous.

RAR'EFYING, participle present tense Making thin or less dense.

RA'RELY, adverb

1. Seldom; not often; as things rarely seen.

2. Finely; nicely. [little used.]

RA'RENESS, noun

1. The state of being uncommon; uncommonness; infrequency.

And let the rareness the small gift commend.

2. Value arising from scarcity.

3. Thinness; tenuity; as the rareness of air or vapor.

4. Distance from each other; thinness.

RA'RERIPE, adjective

Early ripe; ripe before others, or before the usual season.

RA'RERIPE, noun An early fruit, particularly a kind of peach which ripens early.

RAR'ITY, noun [Latin raritas.]

1. Uncommonness; infrequency.

Far from being fond of a flower for its rarity -

2. A thing valued for its scarcity.

I saw three rarities of different kinds, which pleased me more than any other shows in the place.

3. Thinness; tenuity; opposed to density; as the rarity of air.

RAS'CAL, noun

A mean fellow; a scoundrel; in modern usage, a trickish dishonest fellow; a rogue; particularly applied to men and boys guilty of the lesser crimes, and indicating less enormity or guilt than villain.

I have sense to serve my turn in store, and he's a rascal who pretends to more.

RAS'CAL, adjective

1. Lean; as a rascal deer.

2. Mean; low.

RASCAL'ION, noun [from rascal.] A low mean wretch.

RASCAL'ITY, noun

1. The low mean people.

2. Mean trickishness or dishonesty; base fraud. [This is its sense in present usage in America.]

RAS'CALLY, adjective

1. Meanly trickish or dishonest; vile.

2. Mean; vile; base; worthless; as a rascally porter.

RASE, verb transitive s as z. [Latin rasus, rado.]

1. To pass along the surface of a thing, with striking or rubbing it at the same time; to graze.

Might not the bullet which rased his cheek, have gone into his head? obsolete

2. To erase; to scratch or rub out; or to blot out; to cancel.

[In this sense, erase is generally used.]

3. To level with the ground; to overthrow; to destroy; as, to rase a city.

[In this sense, raze is generally used. This orthography, rase may therefore be considered as nearly obsolete; graze, erase and raze having superseded it.]

RASE, n

1. A cancel; erasure. [Not in use.]

2. A slight wound. [Not in use.]

RASH, adjective

1. Hasty in council or action; precipitate; resolving or entering on a project or measure without due deliberation and caution, and thus encountering unnecessary hazard; applied to persons; as a rash statesman or minister; a rash commander.

2. Uttered or undertaken with too much haste or too little reflection; as rash words; rash measures.

3. Requiring haste; urgent.

I have scarce leisure to salute you, my matter is so rash

4. Quick; sudden; as rash gunpowder. [Not in use.]

RASH, noun Corn so dry as to fall out with handling. [Local.]

RASH, noun

1. Satin.

2. An eruption or efflorescence on the body.

RASH, verb transitive To slice; to cut into pieces; to divide.

RASH'ER, noun A thin slice of bacon; a thin cut.

RASH'LY, adverb With precipitation; hastily; without due deliberation.

He that doth any thing rashly must do it willingly.

So rashly brave, to dare the sword of Theseus.

RASH'NESS, noun

1. To much haste in resolving or in undertaking a measure; precipitation; inconsiderate readiness or promptness to decide or act, implying disregard of consequences or contempt of danger; applied to persons. The failure of enterprises is often owing to rashness

We offend by rashness which is an affirming or denying before we have sufficiently informed ourselves.

2. The quality of being uttered or done without due deliberation; as the rashness of words or of undertakings.

R'ASP, noun [See Rase.]

1. A large rough file; a grater.

2. A raspberry, which see.

R'ASP, verb transitive [See Rase.]

To rub or file with a rasp; to rub or grate with a rough file; as, to rasp wood to make it smooth; to rasp bones to powder.

R'ASPATORY, noun A surgeon's rasp.

R'ASPBERRY, noun [from rasp, so named from the roughness of the brambles.]

The fruit of a bramble or species of rubus; a berry growing on a prickly plant; as the black raspberry; the red and the white raspberry

RA'SURE, noun s as z. [Latin rasura, from rado, rasus. See Rase.]

1. The act of scraping or shaving; the act of erasing.

2. The mark by which a letter, word or any part of a writing is erased, effaced or obliterated; an erasure.

RAT, noun [Probably named from gnawing, and from the root of Latin rodo.]

A small quadruped of the genus Mus, which infests houses, stores and ships; a troublesome race of animals.

To smell a rat to be suspicious, to be on the watch from suspicion; as a cat by the scent or noise of a rat

RA'TABLE, adjective [from rate.]

1. That may be rated, or set at a certain value; as a Danish ore ratable at two marks.

2. Liable or subjected by law to taxation; as ratable estate.

RA'TABLY, adverb By rate or proportion; proportionally.

RATAFIA, noun ratafee'. A fine spirituous liquor, prepared from the kernels of several kinds of fruits, particularly of cherries, apricots and peaches.

RATAN', noun A small cane, the growth of India.

RAT'-CATCHER, noun One who makes it his business to catch rats.

RATCH, noun In clock work, a sort of wheel having twelve fangs, which serve to lift the detents every hour and thereby cause the clock to strike.

RATCH'ET, noun In a watch, a small tooth at the bottom of the fusee or barrel, which stops it in winding up.

RATCH'IL, noun Among miners, fragments of stone.

RATE, noun [Latin ratus, reor, contracted from retor, redor, or resor. See Ratio and Reason.]

1. The proportion or standard by which quantity or value is adjusted; as silver valued at the rate of six shillings and eight pence the ounce.

The rate and standard of wit was different then from what it is in these days.

2. Price or amount stated or fixed on any thing. A king may purchase territory at too dear a rate The rate of interest is prescribed by law.

3. Settled allowance; as a daily rate of provisions. 2 Kings 25:30.

4. Degree; comparative height or value.

I am a spirit of no common rate

In this did his holiness and godliness apear above the rate and pitch of other men's, in that he was so infintely merciful.

5. Degree in which any thing is done. the ship sails at the rate of seven knots an hour.

Many of the horse could not march at that rate nor come lup soon enough.

6. Degree of value; price. Wheat in England is often sold at the rate of fifty shillings the quarter. wit may be purchased at too dear a rate

7. a tax or sum assessed by authority on property for public use, according to its income or value; as parish rates; town rates; highway rates.

8. In the navy, the order or class of a ship, according to its magnitude or force. Ships of the first rate mount a hundred guns or upwards; those of the second rate carry from 90 to 98 guns; those of the third rate carry from 64 to 80 guns; those of the fourth rate from 50 to 60 guns; those of the fifth rate from 32 to 44 guns; those of the sixth rate from 20 to 30 guns. Those of the two latter rates are called frigates.

RATE, verb transitive

1. To set a certain value on; to value at a certain price or degree of excellence.

You seem not high enough your joys to rate

Instead of rating the man by his performances, we too frequently rate the performance by the man.

2. To fix the magnitude, force or order, as of ships. A ship is rated in the first class, or as a ship of the line.

RATE, verb intransitive

1. To be set or considered in a class, as a ship. The ship rates as a ship of the line.

2. To make an estimate.

RATE, verb transitive [See Read. It is probably allied to rattle, and perhaps to Latin rudo.]

To chide with vehemence; to reprove; to scold; to censure violently.

Go, rate thy minions, proud insulting boy.

An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir.

RA'TED, participle passive

1. Set at a certain value; estimated; set in a certain order or rank.

2. Chid; reproved.

RA'TER, noun One who sets a value on or makes an estimate.

RATH, noun A hill. obsolete

RATH, adjective [See Ready.]

Early; coming before others, or before the usual time.

Bring the rath primrose, that forsaken dies.

We sometimes see the word rath-ripe, early ripe; but it is obsolete or nearly so. In the United States, I believe it is not used at all.

RATH'ER, adverb [I would rather go, or sooner go. The use is taken from pushing or moving forward.] [Latin ante, before.] But he said, yea rather happy are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Luke 11:28]

1. More readily or willingly; with better liking; with preference or choice.

My soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life. Job 7:15.

Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John 3:19. Psalms 84:10.

2. In preference; preferably; with better reason. Good is rather to be chosen than evil. See Acts 5:29.

3. In a greater degree than otherwise.

He sought throughout the world, but sought in vain, and no where finding, rather fear'd her slain.

4. More properly; more correctly speaking.

This is an art which does mend nature, change it rather; but the art itself is nature.

5. Noting some degree of contrariety in fact.

She was nothing better, but rather grew worse. Mark 5:26.

Matthew 27:24.

The rather especially; for better reason; for particular cause.

You are come to me in a happy time, the rather for I have some sport in hand.

Had rather is supposed to be a corruption of would rather

I had rather speak five words with my understanding - 1 Corinthians 14:19. This phrase may have been originally, 'I'd rather ' for I would rather and the contraction afterwards mistaken for had. Correct speakers and writers generally use would in all such phrases; I would rather I prefer; I desire in preference.

RATH'OFFITE, noun A mineral brought from Sweden, of the garnet kind. Its color is a dingy brownish black, and it is accompanied with calcarious spar and small crystals of hornblend.

RATIFICA'TION, noun

1. The act of ratifying; confirmation.

2. The act of giving sanction and validity to something done by another; as the ratification of a treaty by the senate of the United States.

RAT'IFIED, participle passive Confirmed; sanctioned; made valid.

RAT'IFIER, noun He or that which ratifies or sanctions.

RAT'IFY, verb transitive [Latin ratum facio, to make firm.]

1. To confirm; to establish; to settle.

We have ratified to them the borders of Judea.

2. To approve and sanction; to make valid; as, to ratify an agreement or treaty.

RAT'IFYING, participle present tense Confirming; establishing; approving and sanctioning.

RA'TING, participle present tense [from rate.]

1. Setting at a certain value; assigning rant to; estimating.

2. Chiding; reproving.

RA'TIO, noun ra'sho. [Latin from ratus, reor, to think or suppose, to set, confirm or establish. Reor is contracted from redor or retor, and primarily signifies to throw, to thrust, hence to speak, to set in the mind, to think, like Latin suppono; and setting gives the sense of a fixed rate or rule. See Reason.]

Proportion, or the relation of homogeneous things which determines the quantity of one from the quantity of another, without the intervention of a third.

The relation which one quantity has to another of the same kind, as expressed by the quotient of the one divided by the other. Thus the ratio of 4 to 2 is 4/2, or 2; and the ratio of 5 to 6 is 5/6. This is geometrical ratio which is that signified when the term is used without distinction; but arithmetical ratio is the difference between two quantities. Thus the arithmetical ratio of 2 to 6 is 4.

Ratio respects magnitudes of the same kind only. One line may be compared with another line, but a line cannot be compared with a superficies, and hence between a line and a superficies there can be no ratio

RA'TIOCINATE, verb intransitive [Latin ratiocinor, from ratio, reason.] To reason; to argue. [Little used.]

RATIOCINA'TION, noun [Latin ratiocinatio.] The act or process of reasoning, or of deducing consequences from premises. [See Reasoning.]

RATIOC'INATIVE, adjective Argumentative; consisting in the comparison of propositions or facts, and the deduction of inferences from the comparison; as a ratiocinative process. [A bad word and little used.]

RA'TION, noun [Latin ratio, proportion.]

A portion or fixed allowance of provisions, drink and forage, assigned to each soldier in an army for his daily subsistence and for the subsistence of horses. Officers have several rations according to their rank or number of attendants. Seamen in the navy also have rations of certain articles.

RA'TIONAL, adjective [Latin rationalis.]

1. Having reason or the faculty of reasoning; endowed with reason; opposed to irrational; as, man is a rational being; brutes are not rational animals.

It is our glory and happiness to have a rational nature.

2. Agreeable to reason; opposed to absurd; as a rational conclusion or inference; rational conduct.

3. Agreeable to reason; not extravagant.

4. Acting in conformity to reason; wise; judicious; as a rational man.

RA'TIONAL, noun A rational being.

RATIONA'LE, noun

1. A detail with reasons; a series of reasons assigned; as Dr. Sparrow's rationale of the Common Prayer.

2. An account or solution of the principles of some opinion, action, hypothesis, phenomenon, etc.

RA'TIONALIST, noun One who proceeds in his disquisitions and practice wholly upon reason.

RATIONAL'ITY, noun

1. The power of reasoning.

God has made rationality the common portion of mankind.

2. Reasonableness.

Well directed intentions, whose rationalities will not bear a rigid examination.

RA'TIONALLY, adverb In consistency with reason; reasonably. We rationally expect every man will pursue his own happiness.

RA'TIONALNESS, noun The state of being rational or consistent with reason.

RAT'LIN,

RAT'LINE, noun A small line traversing the shrouds of a ship, making the step of a ladder for ascending to the mast-heads.

RAT'LINE, n. A small line traversing the shrouds of a ship, making the step of a ladder for ascending to the mast-heads.

RATOON', noun

A sprout from the root of the sugar cane, which has been cut.

RATS'BANE, noun [rat and bane.] Poison for rats; arsenic.

RATS'BANED, adjective Poisoned by ratsbane.

RAT'-TAIL, noun In farriery, an excrescence growing from the pastern to the middle of the shank of a horse.

RATTEEN', noun A thick woolen stuff quilled or twilled.

RATTINET', noun A woolen stuff thinner than ratteen.

RAT'TLE, verb intransitive

1. To make a quick sharp noise rapidly repeated, by the collision of bodies not very sonorous. When bodies are sonorous, it is called jingling. We say, the wheels rattle over the pavement.

And the rude hail in rattling tempest forms.

He fagoted his notions as they fell, and if they rhym'd and rattl'd, all was well.

2. To speak eagerly and noisily; to utter words in a clattering manner.

Thus turbulent in rattling tone she spoke.

He rattles it out against popery.

RAT'TLE, verb transitive

1. To cause to make a rattling sound or a rapid succession of sharp sounds; as, to rattle a chain.

2. To stun with noise; to drive with sharp sounds rapidly repeated.

Sound but another, and another shall, as loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear.

3. To scold; to rail at clamorously; as, to rattle off servants sharply.

RAT'TLE, noun

1. A rapid succession of sharp clattering sounds; as the rattle of a drum.

2. A rapid succession of words sharply uttered; loud rapid talk; clamorous chiding.

3. An instrument with which a clattering sound is made.

The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea nearly enough resemble each other.

The rhymes and rattles of the man or boy.

4. A plant of the genus Pedicularis, louse-wort.

Yellow rattle a plant of the genus Rhinanthus.

RAT'TLESNAKE, noun A snake that has rattles at the tail, of the genus Crotalus. The rattles consist of articulated horny cells, which the animal vibrates in such a manner as to make a rattling sound. The poison of the rattlesnake is deadly.

RAT'TLING, participle present tense Making a quick succession of sharp sounds.

RAT'TLING, noun A rapid succession of sharp sounds. Nahum 3.

RAU'CITY, noun [Latin raucus, hoarse. Raucus is the Eng. rough, which see.]

1. Hoarseness; a loud rough sound; as the raucity of a trumpet.

2. Among physicians, hoarseness of the human voice.

RAU'COUS, adjective Hoarse; harsh. [Not in use.]

RAUGHT, the old participle of reach. obsolete

RAUNCH. [See Wrench.]

RAV'AGE, noun [Latin rapio.]

1. Spoil; ruin; waste; destruction by violence, wither by men, beasts or physical causes; as the ravage of a lion; the ravages of fire or tempest; the ravages of an army.

Would one think 'twene possible for love to make such ravage in a noble soul.

2. Waste; ruin; destruction by decay; as the ravages of time.

RAV'AGE, verb transitive

1. To spoil; to plunder; to pillage; to sack.

Already Cesar has ravag'd more than half the globe!

2. To lay waste by any violent force; as, a flood or inundation ravages the meadows.

The shatter'd forest and the ravag'd vale.

3. to waste or destroy by eating; as fields ravaged by swarms of locusts.

RAV'AGED, participle passive Wasted; destroyed; pillaged.

RAV'AGER, noun a plunderer a spoiler; he or that which lays waste.

RAV'AGING, participle present tense Plundering; pillaging; laying waste.

RAVE, verb intransitive [Latin rabio, to rave to rage or be furious; rabies, rage.]

1. To wander in mind or intellect; to be delirious; to talk irrationally; to be wild.

when men thus rave we may conclude their brains are turned.

2. To utter furious exclamations; to be furious or raging; as a madman.

Have I not cause to rave and beat my breast?

3. To dote; to be unreasonably fond; followed by upon; as, to rave upon antiquity. [Hardly proper.]

RAVE, noun the upper side-piece of timber of the body of a cart.

RAVEL, verb transitive rav'l.

1. To entangle; to entwist together; to make intricate; to involve; to perplex.

What glory's due to him that could divide such ravel'd inte'rests, has the knot unty'd?

2. To untwist; to unweave or unknot; to disentangle; as, to ravel out a twist; to ravel out a stocking.

Sleep, that knits up the ravel'd sleeve of care.

3. to hurry or run over in confusion. [Not in use.]

RAVEL, verb intransitive rav'l.

1. To fall into perplexity and confusion.

Till by their own perplexities involv'd, they ravel more, still less resolv'd.

2. To work in perplexities; to busy one's self with intricacies; to enter by winding and turning.

It will be needless to ravel far into the records of elder times.

The humor of raveling into all these mystical or entangled matters - produced infinite diputes.

3. To be unwoven.

[As far as my observation extends, ravel in the United States, is used only in the second sense above, viz. to unweave, to separate the texture of that which is woven or knit; so that ravel and unravel are with us always synonymous. etymology proves this to be the true sense of the word ravel ]

RAV'ELED, participle passive Twisted together; made intricate; disentangled.

RAV'ELIN, noun

In fortification, a detached work with two faces which make a salient angle, without any flanks, and raised before the counterscarp, of the place. In this it differs from a half moon, which is placed before an angle.

RAV'ELING, participle present tense Twisting or weaving; untwisting; disentangling.

RAVEN, noun ra'ven. [Heb. from its color. But this may be Latin corvus, rapio.]

A large fowl of a black color, of the genus Corvus.

RAVEN, verb transitive rav'n.

1. To devour with great eagerness; to eat with voracity.

Our natures do pursue, like rats that raven down their proper bane, a thirsty evil, and when we drink, we die.

Like a roaring lion, ravening the prey. Ezekiel 22:25.

2. To obtain by violence.

RAVEN, verb intransitive rav'n. To prey with rapacity.

Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. Genesis 49:1.

RAVEN, noun rav'n.

1. Prey; plunder; food obtained by violence. Nahum 2.

2. Rapine; rapacity.

RAV'ENED, participle passive Devoured with voracity.

RAV'ENER, noun One that ravens or plunders.

RAV'ENING, participle present tense Preying with rapacity; voraciously devouring; as a ravening wolf.

RAV'ENING, noun Eagerness for plunder. Luke 11:39.

RAV'ENOUS, adjective

1. Furiously voracious; hungry even to rage; devouring with rapacious eagerness; as a ravenous wolf, lion or vulture.

2. Eager for prey or gratification; as ravenous appetite or desire.

RAV'ENOUSLY, adverb With raging voracity.

RAV'ENOUSNESS, noun Extreme voracity; rage for prey; as the ravenousness of a lion.

RAVEN'S DUCK, noun A species of sail cloth.

RA'VER, noun [from rave.] One that raves or is furious.

RAV'ET, noun An insect shaped like a cock-chaffer, which infests the West Indies.

RAVIN. [See raven.]

RAV'IN, adjective Ravenous. [Not in use.]

RAV'INE, noun A long deep hollow worn by a stream or torrent of water; hence, any long deep hollow or pass through mountains, etc.

RA'VING, participle present tense or adjective Furious with delirium; mad; distracted.

RA'VINGLY, adverb With furious wildness or frenzy; with distraction.

RAV'ISH, verb transitive [Latin rapio.]

1. To seize and carry away by violence.

These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin, will quicken and accuse thee.

This hand shall ravish thy pretended right.

2. To have carnal knowledge of a woman by force and against her consent. Isaiah 13:16. Zechariah 14:2.

3. To bear away with joy or delight; to delight to ecstasy; to transport.

Thou hast ravished my heart. Proverbs 5:19.

RAV'ISHED, participle passive Snatched away by violence; forced to submit to carnal embrace; delighted to ecstasy.

RAV'ISHER, noun

1. One that takes by violence.

2. One that forces a woman to his carnal embrace.

3. One that transports with delight.

RAV'ISHING, participle present tense

1. Snatching or taking by violence; compelling to submit to carnal intercourse; delighting to ecstasy.

2. adjective Delighting to rapture; transporting.

RAV'ISHING, noun

1. A seizing and carrying away by violence.

2. Carnal knowledge by force against consent.

3. Ecstatic delight; transport.

RAV'ISHINGLY, adverb To extremity of delight.

RAV'ISHMENT, noun

1. The act of forcing a woman to carnal connection; forcible violation of chastity.

2. Rapture; transport of delight; ecstasy; pleasing violence of the mind or senses.

All things joy with ravishment attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.

3. The act of carrying away; abduction; as the ravishment of children from their parents, of a ward from his guardian, or of a wife from her husband.

RAW, adjective [Latin crudus, rodo.]

1. Not altered from its natural state; not roasted, boiled or cooked; not subdued by heat; as raw meat.

2. Not covered with skin; bare, as flesh.

If there is quick raw flesh in the risings, it is an old leprosy. Leviticus 13:10.

3. sore.

And all his sinews waxen weak and raw through long imprisonment.

4. Immature; unripe; not concocted.

5. Not altered by heat; not cooked or dressed; being in its natural state; as raw fruit.

6. Unseasoned; unexperienced; unripe in skill; as people while young and raw

so we say, raw troops; and new seamen are called raw hands.

7. New; untried; as a raw trick.

8. Bleak; chilly; cold, or rather cold and damp; as a raw day; a raw cold climate.

Once upon a raw and gusty day -

9. Not distilled; as raw water. [Not used.]

10. Not spun or twisted; as raw silk.

11. Not mixed or adulterated; as raw spirits.

12. Bare of flesh.

13. Not tried or melted and strained; as raw tallow.

14. Not tanned; as raw hides.

RAW'-BONED, adjective Having little flesh on the bones.

RAW'HEAD, noun The name of a specter, mentioned to frighten children; as rawhead and bloody bones.

RAW'ISH, adjective Somewhat raw; cool and damp. [Not much used.]

RAW'LY, adverb

1. In a raw manner.

2. Unskillfully; without experience.

3. Newly.

RAW'NESS, noun

1. The state of being raw; uncooked; unaltered by heat; as the rawness of flesh.

2. Unskillfulness; state of being inexperienced; as the rawness of seamen or troops.

3. Hasty manner. [Not legitimate.]

4. Chilliness with dampness.

RAY, noun [Latin radius.]

1. a line of light, or the right line supposed to be described by a particle of light. a collection of parallel rays constitutes a beam; a collection of diverging or converging rays, a pencil.

The mixed solar beam contains, 1st. calorific rays, producing heat and expansion, but not vision and color; 2d. colorific rays, producing vision and color, but not heat nor expansion; 3d. chimical rays, producing certain effects on the composition of bodies, but neither heat, expansion, vision or color; 4th. a power producing magnetism, but whether a distinct or associated power, is not determined. It seems to be associated with the violet, more than with the other rays.

2. Figuratively, a beam of intellectual light.

3. Light; luster.

The air sharpen'd his visual ray

4. In botany, the outer part or circumference of a compound radiate flower.

5. In ichthyology, a bony or cartilaginous ossicle in the fins of fishes, serving to support the membrane.

6. A plant, [lolium.]

7. ray for array. [Not in use.]

Pencil of rays, a number of rays of light issuing from a point and diverging.

RAY, noun A fish; a common name for the species of the genus Raia, including the skate, thornback, torpedo, stingray, etc.

RAY, verb intransitive

1. To streak; to mark with long lines.

2. To foul; to beray. [Not in use.]

3. To array. [Not in use.]

4. To shoot forth.

RA'YLESS, adjective Destitute of light; dark; not illuminated.

RAZE, noun A root. [See Race-ginger, under Race.]

RAZE, verb transitive [Latin rasus, rado. See Rase and Erase.]

1. To subvert from the foundation; to overthrow; to destroy; to demolish; as, to raze a city to the ground.

The royal hand that raz'd unhappy Troy.

2. To erase; to efface; to obliterate.

Razing the characters of your renown.

[In this sense, rase and erase are now used.]

3. To extirpate.

And raze their factions and their family.

RA'ZED, participle passive Subverted; overthrown; wholly ruined; erased; extirpated.

RAZEE', noun A ship of war cut down to a smaller size.

RA'ZING, participle present tense subverting; destroying; erasing; extirpating.

RA'ZOR, noun [Latin rasus, rado, to scrape.]

An instrument for shaving off beard or hair. Razors of a boar, a boar's tusks.

RA'ZORABLE, adjective Fit to be shaved. [Not in use.]

RA'ZURE, noun [Latin rasura, from rado.]

The act of erasing or effacing; obliteration.

[See Rasure.]