Dictionary

raffish en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈɹæfɪʃ/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From late 18th century raff (“persons among the lowest class in society”) + -ish, still retained in contemporary English with riffraff. From Old French raffer (“to wear away”), of Germanic origin. Compare German raffen. Compare rip (“to tear”), rap (“to snatch”).

Meanings

1. Characterized by careless unconventionality; rakish.
   • Billie Eilish wants you to know she is in charge, brash and self-assured enough to scrap the raffish image that helped garner her a world of fans in favor of something a little more … adult. 2021 May 4, Ruth La Ferla, “On That Bombshell Billie Eilish Cover for British Vogue”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • The smokers' most raffish outsider, Comstock, appeared to do nothing but smoke; Chris had never seen him inside the building. 2022, Jennifer Egan, “i, the Protagonist”, in The Candy House:
2. Low-class; disreputable; vulgar.
   • He bowed cordially to the lady in charge of Miss de Barral’s education, whom he saw in the hall engaged in conversation with a very good-looking but somewhat raffish young gentleman. 1914, Joseph Conrad, “The Governess”, in Chance, London: Methuen, →OCLC:
   • I had met the man before this in the village, and detested him on sight; there was something indescribably raffish in his looks and ways that raised my gorge; […] 1891 February–December, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter XV, in In the South Seas […], New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1896, →OCLC:
   • Altogether the city [Las Vegas] is one of the most amiably raffish communities in the nation—an assembly of glittering chrome and flaming colors by day, a flowering jungle of glowing neon and flashing lights by night. 1951 February 11, Gladwin Hill, “Atomic Boom Town In the Desert”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • He wore a neat dark overcoat, brown shoes, and a bowler hat rather on one side; his appearance was, in fact, genteel, though his air was a trifle raffish. 1919, Anthony Hope, chapter VII, in The Secret of the Tower:

Forms

Deriveds

unraffish · raffishly · raffishness

Relateds

riffraff

Translations (2)

bg разпасан (characterized by careless unconventionality — see also rakish) · de verwegen (characterized by careless unconventionality — see also rakish)