Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RAV'ISH-MENT, n.

1. The act of forcing a woman to carnal connection; forcible violation of chastity. – Taylor. Dryden.
2. Rapture; transport of delight; ecstasy; pleasing violence on the mind or senses. All things joy with ravishment / Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze. – Milton.
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. – Blackstone.

RAW, a. [Sax. hreaw, reaw; D. raauw; G. roh; Dan. raa; Sw. rå; L. crudus; Sp. and It. crudo; Fr. cru; Arm. criz or crih; W. crau, blood; cri, raw. In the Teutonic dialects, the last radical is lost or sunk to w or h, but the Saxon initial h represents the L. c. Ar. أَرَضَ aradza, to eat or corrode, L. rodo, also to become raw. Class Rd, No. 35.]

1. Not altered from its natural state; not roasted, boiled or cooked; not subdued by heat; as, raw meat. – Spenser.
2. Not covered with skin; bare, as flesh. If there is quick raw flesh in the risings, it is an old leprosy. – Lev. xiii.
3. Sore. And all his sinews waxen weak and raw / Through long imprisonment. – Spenser.
4. Immature; unripe; not concocted. – Johnson.
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. – South. 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. – Spenser. Once upon a raw and gusty day. – Shak.
9. Not distilled; as, raw water. [Not used.] – Bacon.
10. Not spun or twisted; as, raw silk.
11. Not mixed or adulterated; as, raw spirits.
12. Bare of flesh. – Spenser.
13. Not tried or melted and strained; as, raw tallow.
14. Not tanned; as, raw hides.

RAW'-BON-ED, a.

Having little flesh on the bones. – Shak.

RAW'-COT-TON, n.

Cotton not wrought into a fabric.

RAW'HEAD, n.

The name of a specter, mentioned to frighten children; as, rawhead and bloody bones. – Dryden.

RAW'ISH, a.

Somewhat raw; cool and damp. [Not much used.] – Marston.

RAW'LY, adv.

1. In a raw manner.
2. Unskillfully; without experience.
3. Newly. – Shak.

RAW'NESS, n.

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.] – Shak.
4. Chilliness with dampness.

RAY, n.¹ [Fr. raie, rayon; It. razzo, raggio, radio; Sp. and Port. rayo; from L. radius; W. rhaiz; Ir. riodh; Arm. rea, roudenn, Sans. radina. It coincides with rod and row, from shooting; extending. Hence in W. rhaiz is a spear, as well as a ray.]

1. A line of light, or the right line supposed to be describe by a particle of light. A collection of parallel rays constitutes a beam; a collection of diverging or converging rays, a pencil. – D. Olmsted. The mixed solar beam contains, 1st caloric rays, producing heat and expansion, but not vision and color; 2nd. colorific rays, producing vision and color, but not heat not expansion; 3rd. 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. – Silliman.
2. Figuratively, a beam of intellectual light.
3. Light; luster. The air sharpen'd his visual rag. – Milton.
4. In botany, the outer part or circumference of a compound radiate flower. – Martyn. A plate of compressed parallelograms of cellular tissue, connecting the texture of the stem, and maintaining a communication between the center and the circumference.
5. In ichthyology, a bony or cartilaginous ossicle in the fins of fishes, serving to support the membrane.
6. A plant, [lolium.] – Ainsworth.
7. Ray, for Array. [Not in use.] – Spenser. B. Jonson. Pencil of rays, a number of rays of light issuing from a point and diverging. – Encyc.

RAY, n.² [Fr. raie; Sp. raya; G. roche.]

A fish; a common name for the species of the genus Rain, including the skate, thornback, torpedo, stingray, &c.

RAY, v.t.

1. To streak; to mark with long lines. – Spenser. Shak.
2. To foul; to obey. [Not in use.] – Spenser.
3. To array. [Not in use.]
4. To shoot forth. – Thomson.

RA'YAH, n.

In Turkey, a person, not a Mohammedan, who pays the capitation tax.

RAY'LESS, a.

Destitute of light; dark; not illuminated. – Young.

RAZE, n.

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

RAZE, v.t. [Fr. raser; L. rasus, rado; Sp. arrasar. 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. – Dryden.
2. To erase; to efface; to obliterate. Razing the characters of your renown. – Shak. [In this sense, rase and erase are now used.]
3. To extirpate. And raze their factions and their family. – Shak.

RAZ'ED, pp.

Subverted; overthrown; wholly ruined; erased; extirpated.

RA-ZEE', n.

A ship of war cut down to a smaller size.

RAZ'ING, ppr.

Subverting; destroying; erasing; extirpating.

RA'ZOR, n. [Fr. rasoir; It. rasoio; from Fr. raser, L. rasus, rado, to scrape.]

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

RA'ZOR-A-BLE, a.

Fit to be shaved. [Not in use.] – Shak.

RA'ZOR-BILL, n.

An aquatic fowl, the Alca torda; also, the Rhynchops nigra or cut-water. – Ed. Encyc.

RA'ZOR-ED, a.

Formed like a razor.

RA'ZOR-FISH, n.

A species of fish with a compressed body.

RA'ZOR-SHELL, n.

An animal in shape like a razor. – Kirby.

RAZ'URE, n. [Fr. rasure; L. rasura, from rado.]

The act of erasing or effacing; obliteration. [See Rasure.]