raff
/ɹæf/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.74 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A three-cornered sail set on a schooner when before the wind.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "A raff of errors."
- "Bowditch and I (with a raff of books) left town about five in the morning."
- "[a hut] was fashioned of the raff of the slough—dead fronds, rotting branches, withered marsh grasses. Its sad gray-green were in the living wilderness like a monument to death."
- "Jostling with unemployed labourers of the lowest class, ballast-heavers, coal-whippers, brazen women, ragged children, and the raff and refuse of the river, he makes his way with difficulty along […]"
- "English raffs of every description"
- "There is no town of any mark in Europe but it has its little colony of English raffs—men whose names Mr. Hemp the officer reads out periodically at the Sheriffs' Court—young gentlemen of very good family often, only that the latter disowns them; frequenters of billiard-rooms and estaminets, patrons of foreign races and gaming-tables."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Countable
- Dated
- Uncountable
- British usage
- Slang