| English Dictionary |
RAKISH
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does rakish mean?
• RAKISH (adjective)
The adjective RAKISH has 2 senses:
1. marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners
2. marked by a carefree unconventionality or disreputableness
Familiarity information: RAKISH used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners
Synonyms:
dapper; dashing; jaunty; natty; raffish; rakish; snappy; spiffy; spruce
Context example:
a jaunty red hat
Similar:
fashionable; stylish (being or in accordance with current social fashions)
Derivation:
rakishness (stylishness as evidenced by a smart appearance)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Marked by a carefree unconventionality or disreputableness
Synonyms:
devil-may-care; raffish; rakish
Context example:
a cocktail party given by some...raffish bachelors
Similar:
unconventional (not conventional or conformist)
Derivation:
rakishness (the quality of a rake)
Context examples
A little later a rakish young workman, with a goatee beard and a swagger, lit his clay pipe at the lamp before descending into the street.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Her eyebrows had been plucked and then drawn on again at a more rakish angle but the efforts of nature toward the restoration of the old alignment gave a blurred air to her face.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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