raw

An unprocessed sugar; a batch of such.

Adjective

  1. Not cooked.
    • There's nothing but raw fish in the freezer.
    • He ate raw beef for dinner.

    1. Subsisting on, or pertaining to, a diet of raw food.

      • I was 100% raw from 2014 until early 2018.
  2. Not treated or processed; in a natural state, unrefined, unprocessed. (of materials, products, etc.)
    • Volatiles of kecap manis and its raw materials were extracted using Likens-Nickerson apparatus with diethyl ether as the extraction solvent. The extracts were then dried with anhydrous sodium sulfate, concentrated using...
    • raw cane sugar
    • raw sewage
  3. Having had the skin removed or abraded; chafed, tender; exposed, lacerated.
    • ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their...
    • a raw wound
  4. New or inexperienced.
    • a raw beginner
  5. Crude in quality; rough, uneven, unsophisticated.
    • a raw voice
  6. Uncorrected, without analysis.
    • What makes Mexico worrying is not just the raw numbers but the power of the cartels over society. - 2010, "Under the volcano", The Economist, 16 Oct 2010
  7. Unpleasantly cold or damp. (of weather)
    • a raw wind
    • a raw and gusty day - 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • […] I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, […] - 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë],...
  8. Unmasked, undisguised, strongly expressed. (of an emotion, personality, etc.)
    • raw emotion
  9. Candid in a representation of unpleasant facts, conditions, etc.
    • a raw description of the American political arena
  10. Unrefined, crude, or insensitive, especially with reference to sexual matters. (of language)
  11. Without a condom.
  12. Not covered; bare; bald.
    • with scull all raw - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 11:

Origin

From Middle English rawe, raw, rau, from Old English hrēaw (“raw, uncooked”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrau, from Proto-Germanic *hrawaz, *hrēwaz (“raw”), from Proto-Indo-European *krewh₂- (“raw meat, fresh blood”). Cognate with Scots raw (“raw”), Dutch rauw (“raw”), German roh (“raw”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish rå (“raw”), Faroese ráur (“raw”), Icelandic hrár (“raw”), Latin crūdus (“raw, bloody, uncooked”), Irish cró (“blood”), Lithuanian kraujas (“blood”), Russian кровь (krovʹ, “blood”). Related also to Old English hrēow, hrēoh (“rough, fierce, wild, angry, disturbed, troubled, sad, stormy, tempestuous”). More at ree. Doublet of crude.

Forms

rawer rawest

Synonyms

raw coarse crude natural pure pristine unalloyed unmixed unprocessed unrefined untouched untreated utter

Antonyms

contaminated impure manufactured modified processed refined

Hyponyms

green in the rough rough cast rough hewn unblown unboiled uncooked unconcocted uncut unfashioned unformed unhewn unlabored unpolished unsmelted unwrought

Derived

come the raw prawn hit a raw nerve in the raw Johnny Raw nonraw on the raw raw bar rawboned raw-boned rawbones raw data raw deal raw dog raw foodism raw foodist raw-head and bloody-bones rawhide rawish rawism rawist raw lobster rawly raw material raw milk

Adverb

  1. Without a condom.
    • We did it raw.
    • You know what I be on, I'm about to go raw - 2020, “What You Know Bout Love”, performed by Pop Smoke:

Synonyms

condomless

Noun

  1. An unprocessed sugar; a batch of such.
    • With the recent advance in London yellow crystals, however, the disproportion of the relative value of these two kinds has been considerably reduced, and a better demand for crystallized raws should consequently occur....
    • Early in the year the raws were melted to about 20 Brix in order to facilitate filtration. - 1921, “The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry”, in American Chemical Society, Volume 13, Part 1, page 149:
    • The world sugar contract closed 1 to 3 points net higher, with sales of only 36 lots. London raws sold at 8s. 4½d., and futures there were unchanged to 3d. higher. - 1939, The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, Volume...
  2. A galled place; an inveterate sore.
  3. A point about which a person is particularly sensitive.
    • In a moment Tom was angry. The women saw that Bill had touched him upon the raw, and they went out of the room to prepare a meal. - 1934, Harold Heslop, Goaf, page 29:
  4. A recording or rip of a show that has not been fansubbed.
  5. A scan that has not been cleaned (purged of blemishes arising from the scanning process) and has not been scanlated.

Forms

raws

Verb

  1. To sexually penetrate without a condom.

Forms

raws rawing rawed