rakehell
Immoral; dissolute.
Adjective
- Immoral; dissolute.
- And farre away, amid their rakehell bands, / They spide a Lady left all succourlesse […]. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- I knew from the beginning that I would have to move fast to keep Minnie to myself. Kansas City was full of rakehell bachelors, all of whom I had to outcourt. - 1982, Roy Wilkins, Tom Mathews, Standing Fast: The...
Origin
From to rake (out) hell (“to search through hell thoroughly”), in the sense of a person so evil or immoral that they cannot be found in hell even after an extensive search: see rake (“to search through (thoroughly)”). Compare rakeshame.
Forms
Synonyms
Noun
- A lewd or wanton person; a debauchee; a rake.
- It seldom doth happen, in any way of life, that a sluggard and a rakehell do not go together. - a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number)”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac...
- And indeed I believe the insolence of this creature will ruin her master at last, by driving away men of sobriety and business, and making the place a den of vagabonds and rakehells. - 1725, Daniel Defoe, Everybody's...
- “It is some freak of that drunken rakehell,” said Albert, in a low voice, to his sister, who had crept out after him on tiptoe. - 1826, [Walter Scott], chapter XXXII, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume (please...