rave 
The rave bolts [in a bob-sleigh] extend upward from the 
runners in front and rear of the knees, and the raves rest 
between their ends on the bottom of the recess. 
Sri. Amer., N. S., LIV. 130. 
Floating raves, a light open frame of horizontal bars, 
attached along the top of the sides of wagons, and sloping 
upward and outward from them. They are convenient 
for supporting and securing light bulky loads. Farrow, 
Mil. Encyc., L 679. 
rave e t (rav), n. [ME., < OF. rave, < L. rapa, 
rapum, a turnip: see rape*.'] A turnip. 
Rave, as brassik for vyne as ille is fonde. 
Palladia, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.\ p. 173. 
rave-hook (rav'huk), . In ship-carp., a hooked 
iron tool used when enlarging the butts for re- 
ceiving a sufficient quantity of oakum ; a rip- 
ping-iron. 
ravel 1 (rav'el or rav'l), r. ; pret. and pp. rareled 
or ravelled, ppr. raveling or ravelling. [Former- 
ly also reavel and (as a var. of the noun) revel; 
early mod. E. also "rivel, ryvell((. OF. riuler, un- 
ravel, < LG.); < MD. ravelen, entangle (L. in- 
tricare, Kilian), ravel (Hexam, Sewel) (uit ra- 
velen, ravel out, unravel), D. rafelen, unravel, 
unweave, = LG. reffeln, rebeln-rebbeln, unravel, 
unweave ; origin unknown. There is no obvi- 
ous connection with G.raffeln, snatch up, rake, 
raffel, a rake, grate for flax, < raffen, snatch: 
see raff, raffle^.] I. trans. 1. To tangle; en- 
tangle ; entwine confusedly ; involve in a tan- 
gled or knotted mass, as thread or hair mingled 
together loosely. 
Sleepe that Knits vp the rauel'd Sleeue [that Is, floss-silk] 
of Care. Shak. , Macbeth (folio 1628), li. 2. 37. 
I've reavell'd a' my yellow hair 
Coming against the wind. 
Blenkindie (Child's Ballads, II. 12). 
Minute glands, which resemble ravelled tubes, formed 
of basement membrane and epithelial scales. 
J. R. Nichols, Fireside Science, p. 186. 
Hence 2. To involve; perplex; confuse. 
What glory 's due to him that could divide 
Such ravel d int'rests, has the knot untied? Waller. 
3f. To treat confusedly ; jumble ; muddle. 
They but ravel it over loosely, and pitch upon disputing 
against particular conclusions. Sir K. Digby. 
4. To disentangle; disengage the threads or 
fibers of (a woven or knitted fabric, a rope, a 
mass of tangled hair, etc.); draw apart thread 
bythread; unravel: commonly with out: in this 
sense (the exact contrary of the first sense), 
originally with out, ravel out being equivalent 
to unravel. 
Must I ravel out 
My weaved-up folly ? 
Shak., Rich. II., iv. 1. 228. 
The fiction pleas'd ; their loves I long elude ; 
The night still ravell'd what the day renew'd. 
Fenton, in Pope's Odyssey, xix. 
A favorite gown had been woven by her maids, of cot- 
ton, striped with silk procured by raveling the general's 
discarded stockings. The Century, XXXVII. 841. 
II. intrans. 1. To become entangled or 
snarled, as the ends of loose and dangling 
threads, or a mass of loose hair. Hence 2. 
To become involved or confused; fall into per- 
plexity. 
As you unwind her love from him, 
Lest it should ravel and be good to none, 
You must provide to bottom it on me. 
Shak., T. Q. of V., iii. 2. 52. 
Till, by their own perplexities involved, 
They ravel more, still less resolved. 
Milton, S. A., 1. 305. 
3. To curl up, as a hard-twisted thread. 
Jamieson. [Scotch.] 4. To become untwisted 
or disjoined, as the outer threads of a loosely 
made fabric or the strands of a rope ; become 
disjoined thread by thread j fray, as a garment 
at the edges : commonly with out. 
I ryvell out, as sylke doth, je rivle. Palsgrave. 
Hence 5. To suffer gradual disintegration 
or decay. 
Do's my lord ravell out? do's he fret? 
Marston, The Fawne, li. 1. 
And this vast Work all ravel out again 
To its first Nothing. CmvUy, Davideis, i. 
6f. To make a minute and careful examination 
in order to straighten what is confused, unfold 
what is hidden, or clear up what is obscure; 
investigate; search; explore. 
It can be little pleasure to us to rave [sic ed. 1660, 1671 ; 
rake, ed. 1681, 1686: read ravel] into the infirmities of God's 
servants, and bring them upon the stage. 
Bp. Sanderson, Works, I. 100. 
It will be needless to ravel far into the records of elder 
times. Decay of Christian Piety. 
The humour of ravelling into all these mystical or en- 
tangled matters . . . produced infinite disputes. 
Sir W. Temple. 
4976 
ravel 1 (rav'el or rav'l), . [Formerly or dial. 
alsorerel; < ravel 1 , r.] 1. A raveled thread; 
a raveling. [Bare.] 
Life goes all to ravels and tatters. Carlyle, in Froude. 
2. pi. The broken threads cast away by women 
at their needlework. Halliwell (spelled revels). 
3. In weaving, a serrated instrument for guid- 
ing the separate yarns when being distributed 
and wound upon the yarn-beam of a loom, or 
for guiding the yarns wound on a balloon ; an 
evener; a separator. 
Also, in Scotch spelling, rairt-l. 
ravel 2 (rav'el), t'. Same as rabble 1 . [Prov. 
Eng.] 
ravel-bread (rav'el-bred), . Same as raveled 
bread. See raveled. Halliwell. [Prov. Eng.] 
raveledt, ravelledt, a. [< OF. ravale, ravalle, 
brought low, abated, lessened in price, pp. of 
ravaler, ravaller, ravailler, bring down, bring 
low, abate, diminish, lessen in price, < re-, back, 
+ avaler, let down, come down: see avale.] 
Lower-priced: distinctively noting wheaten 
bread made from flour and bran together. 
The raveled is a kind of cheat bread, but it reteineth 
more of the grosse and lesse of the pure substance of the 
wheat. Harrison, p. IBS. (Ualliicett.) 
They had four different kinds of wheaten bread : the 
finest called manchet, the second cheat or trencher bread, 
the third ravelled, and the fourth in England called mes- 
celin [see nuuh'n-'], in Scotland mashloch. The ravelled 
was baken up just as it came from the mill, flour, bran, and 
all. Arnot, Hist, of Edin. (Jamieson.) 
ravelin (rav'lin), . [Formerly also rav'lin, 
corruptly raveling; < OF. ravelin, F. ravelin, 
m., OF. also raveline, t., = Sp. revellin = Pg. 
revelim, < Olt. ra- 
vellino, revellino, 
It. rivellino, a 
ravelin ; origin 
unknown; hard- 
ly, as supposed, 
< L. re-, back, + 
vallum, a wall, 
rampart: see 
ira/fi. Cf. F. 
dial. ravelin, 
dim. of ravin, a 
ravine, hollow: 
see ravine^.] A 
detached trian- 
gular work in 
fortification, with two embankments which 
form a projecting angle. In the figure SB is the 
ravelin, with .1 its redout, and CC its ditch. DD is the 
main ditch of the fortress, and E the passage giving ac- 
cess from the fortress to the ravelin. 
We will erect 
Wals and a raveling that may safe our fleet and us pro- 
tect Chapman, Iliad, vii. 
This book will live, it hath a genius ; . . . 
. . . here needs no words' expence 
In bulwarks, rav'lins, ramparts for defence. 
B. Jonson, On the Poems of Sir John Beaumont. 
raveling 1 , ravelling (rav'el-ing), . [Verbal 
n. of ravel 1 , v.~] A raveled thread or fiber; a 
thread drawn out from a woven,' knitted, or 
twisted fabric : as, to use ravelings for basting. 
raveling 2 !, " An obsolete form of rarelin. 
raveling-engine (rav'el-ing-en'jin), n. In pa- 
per-man u f., a machine for tearing rags for 
making into pulp; a rag-engine or tearing- 
cylinder. 
ravelledt, ravelling. See raveled, raveling!. 
ravelly (rav'el-i), a. [< ravel 1 + -y 1 .] Show- 
ing loose or disjoined threads; partly raveled 
out. [Colloq.] 
Dressed in a dark suit of clothes that looked seamed and 
ravelly, as if from rough contact with thorny undergrowth. 
The Century, XXXIX. 444. 
ravelment (rav'el-ment), n. [< ravel 1 + -meat.'] 
A pulling or drawing apart, as in raveling a 
fabric; hence, disunion of feeling; disagree- 
ment; embroilment. 
raven 1 (ra'vn), . and a. [< ME. raven, reven, 
revin; pi. ravenes, refnes, remes; < AS. hrsefn, 
hrefn, hrsemn, nrenin = D. raven, rave, raaf = 
MLG. raven, rave, LG. rave = OHG. rabo, also 
hraban, raban, hram, ram, MHG. rabe, also 
rappe, raben, ram, ramm (forms remaining in 
the proper names Bapp and Wolf-ram) = Icel. 
tirafn = OSw. rafn, ramn = Dan. ravn (not re- 
corded in Goth.), a raven; perhaps, like the 
crow and owl, named from its cry, namely 
from the root seen in L. crepare, rattle: see 
crepitation, discrepant. The alleged etymologi- 
cal connection with L. connw, Gr. xopaf, raven, 
L. cornix, Gr. Kopuvy, crow, Pol. kritk, a raven. 
Skt. kdrava, a raven, is not made out.] I. . 
1. A bird of the larger species of the genus 
Ravenala 
t, having the feathers of the throat lance- 
olate and distinct from one another. The plu- 
mage is entirely black, with more or less lustrous or me- 
tallic sheen ; the hill and feet are ebony-black ; the wings 
are pointed, the tail is rounded, and the nostrils are con 
cealed beneath large tufts of antrorse plumules. The 
voice is raucous. The common raven is C. corax, about 
Raven (Corvttr corax). 
2 feet long and 50 inches in extent of wings. It inhabits 
Europe, Asia, and some other regions, and the American 
bird, though distinguished as C. carnivorus, is scarcely 
different. There are several similar though distinct spe- 
cies of various countries, among them C. cryptoleucus of 
western North America, which has the concealed buses 
of the feathers of the neck snowy- white. Ravens are easi- 
ly tamed, and make very intelligent pets, but are thievish 
and troublesome. They may be taught to imitate speech 
to some extent. In the wild state the raven is omnivo- 
rous, like the crow ; it nests on trees, rocks, and dills, 
S referring the most inaccessible places, and lays four or 
ve greenish eggs heavily speckled with brown and black- 
ish shades. The American raveri is now almost unknown 
in the eastern parts of the United States, but is still 
abundant in the west. Ravens have from time immemo- 
rial been viewed with superstitious dread, being supposed 
to bring bad luck and forebode death. 
The nii-rii himself is hoarse 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
Under my battlements. Shak., Macbeth, i. 6. 40. 
2. A kind of fish. See sea-raven and Hemi- 
trinteridfe. 
n. a. Black as a raven ; evenly and glossily 
or lustrously black: as, raven locks. 
Smoothing the raven down 
Of darkness till it smiled. 
Milton, Comus, 1. 251. 
raven 2 (rav'n), . [Also ravine; early mod. E. 
also ravin; < ME. ravin, ravine, ravyne, ra- 
veyne, < OF. ravine, raveine, rabine, prey, plun- 
der, rapine, also rapidity, impetuosity, prob. = 
Pr. rabina, < L. rapina, plunder, pillage : see 
rapine, a doublet of roeen 2 .] 1. Plunder; 
rapine; robbery; rapacity; furious violence. 
[Archaic.] 
And whan thei herde the horne a-noon tin i slaked 
thelre reynes and spored theire horse and smote in to the 
hoste with grete ravyne. Merlin (E. E. T. 8.), ii. 824. 
Oh gods ! 
Why do we like to feed the greedy raven 
Of these blown men? Fletcher, Valentinlan, v. 4. 
2. Plunder; prey; food obtained with rapacity. 
That is to seyn, the foulis of ravyne 
Were heyest set. 
Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls, 1. 323. 
Egles, Oledes, Ravenes, and othere Foules of raveyne, 
that eten Flesche. Mandeville, Travels, p. 809. 
The lion . . . filled his holes with prey, and his dens 
with ravin. Nah. U. 12. 
raven 2 (rav'n), v. [Also ravin; < OF. raviner, 
seize by force, ravage, < L.Voptnare (in deriv.), 
plunder, < rapina, plunder, impetuosity: see 
raven 2 , .] I. trans. If. To seize with rapa- 
city, especially food; prey upon; ravage. See 
ravined. 2. To subject to rapine or ravage; 
obtain or take possession of by violence. 
Master Carew of Antony, in his Survay of Cornewall, 
wftnesseth that the Sea hath ravened from that Shire that 
whole Country of Lionease. UakeuiU, Apology, i. 3, 2. 
Woe to the wolves who seek the flock to raven and de- 
vour! WhUKer, Cassandra Southwick. 
3. To devour with great eagerness; eat with 
voracity; swallow greedily. 
Our natures do pursue, 
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane, 
A thirsty evil. Shak., M. for M., i. 2. 133. 
They rather may be said to rauen then to eate it ; and, 
holding the flesh with their teeth, cut it with rasors of 
stone. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 778. 
II. intrant. To prey with rapacity ; show ra- 
pacity. 
Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf. Gen. xlix. 27. 
Ravenala (rav-e-na'la), . [NL. (Adanson, 
1763), from a native name in Madagascar.] A 
genus of monocotyledonous plants, of the onler 
