Raking

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Rake \Rake\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Raked} (r[=a]kt); 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.
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     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
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     4. To search through; to scour; to ransack.
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              The statesman rakes the town to find a plot.
                                                    --Swift.
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     5. To scrape or scratch across; to pass over quickly and
        lightly, as a rake does.
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              Like clouds that rake the mountain summits.
                                                    --Wordsworth.
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     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {To rake up}.
        (a) To collect together, as the fire (live coals), and
            cover with ashes.
        (b) To bring up; to search out and bring to notice again;
            as, to rake up old scandals.
            [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Raking \Rak"ing\ (r[=a]k"[i^]ng), n.
     1. The act or process of using a rake; the going over a space
        with a rake.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A space gone over with a rake; also, the work done, or the
        quantity of hay, grain, etc., collected, by going once
        over a space with a rake.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  muckrake \muck"rake`\ (m[u^]k"r[=a]k`), v. i. [imp. & p. p.
     {-raked}; p. pr. & vb. n. {-raking}.]
     To seek for, expose, or charge, especially habitually,
     corruption, real or alleged, on the part of public men and
     corporations.
  
     Note: On April 14, 1906, President Roosevelt delivered a
           speech on "The Man with the Muck Rake," in which he
           deprecated sweeping and unjust charges of corruption
           against public men and corporations. The phrase was
           taken up by the press, and the verb to {muckrake}, in
           the above sense, and the noun muckraker, to designate
           one so engaged, were speedily coined and obtained wide
           currency. The original allusion was to a character in
           Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" so intent on raking up
           muck that he could not see a celestial crown held above
           him.
           [Webster 1913 Suppl.]