raw 
Awir?, Ljith.frrniyVw, blood.] I. a. 1. Existingin 
the state of natural growth or formation; un- 
changed in constitution by subjection to heat 
or other alterative agency ; uncooked, or chemi- 
cally unaltered : as, raw meat, fish, oysters, etc.; 
most fruits are eaten raw; raw medicinal sub- 
stances; raw (that is, unburnt) umber. 
Distilled waters will last longer than raw waters. 
Bacon, Nat. Hist., 347. 
On this brown, greasy napkin ... lie the raw vege- 
tables she ia preparing for domestic consumption. 
H. James, Jr., Little Tour, p. 166. 
2. In an unchanged condition as regards some 
process of fabrication ; unwrought or unman- 
ufactured. In this sense ram is used either of sub- 
stances in their primitive state, or of partly or wholly fin- 
ished product* fitted for working into other forms, accord- 
ing to the nature of the case : as, the raw materials of a 
manufacture ; raw silk or cotton (the prepared fiber) ; raw 
marble ; raw clay. 
Eight thousand bailes of raw silke are yearly made in 
the Island. Sandys, Travailee, p. 192. 
Like a cautious man of business, he was not going to 
speak rashly of a raw material in which he had had no 
experience. George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, iii. 5. 
It (the German mindj has supplied the run- material in 
almost every branch of science for the defter wits of other 
nations to work on. 
Lowell, Among ray Books, 1st ser., p. 293. 
3. In a rudimeiital condition ; crude in quality 
or state; primitively or coarsely constituted; 
unfinished; untempered; coarse; rough; harsh. 
Her lips were, like raw lether, pale and blew. 
Spenser, f. Q., V. xii. 29. 
The coast scene of Hoguet . . . copied in water-color, 
. . . and blind-haltered with a blazing space of rail-white 
all around it. The Nation, Feb., 1875, p. 84. 
The raw vessels fresh from the wheel, which only re- 
quire a moderate heat to prepare them for being glazed, 
are piled in the highest chamber. Encyc. Brit., XIX. 638. 
The glycerine is of a brownish colour and known as raw, 
in which state it is sold for many purposes. 
Workshop Receipts, 2d sen, p. 310. 
4. Harshly sharp or chilly, as the weather; 
bleak, especially from cold moisture; charac- 
terized by chilly dampness. 
Once, upon a raw and gusty day. Shalt., 3. C., i. 2. 100. 
Dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twi- 
light, with nipped fingers and toes. 
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, i. 
A raw mist rolled down upon the sea. 
B. Taylor, Northern Travel, p. 15. 
5. Crude or rude from want of experience, 
skill, or reflection ; of immature character or 
quality; awkward; untrained; unfledged; ill- 
instructed or ill-considered: said of persons 
and their actions or ideas. 
No newelie practised worshipplnges alloweth he for hys, 
but vtterlye abhorreth them aU as thinges rawe and unsa- 
uerye. Bp. Bale, Image, ii. 
An opinion hath spread itself very far in the world, as 
if the way to be ripe in faith were to be raw in wit and 
judgment. Hooker, Eccles. Polity, iii. 8. 
I have within my mind 
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks, 
Which I will practise. Shak., M. of V., iii. 4. 77. 
He had also a few other raw Seamen, but such as would 
have made better Landmen, they having served the King 
of Siam as Soldiers. Dampier, Voyages, II. i. 112. 
His [Sherman's] division was at that time wholly raw, no 
part of it ever having been in an engagement. 
U. S. Grant, Personal Memoirs, I. 338. 
6. Looking like raw meat, as from lividness or 
removal of the skin ; deprived or appearing des- 
titute of the natural integument: as, a raw 
sore; a raw spot on a horse. 
His cheeke-bones raw, and eie-pits hollow grew, 
And brawney armes had lost their knowen might. 
Spenser, V. Q., IV. xii. 20. 
When raw flesh appeareth in him [a leper], he shall be 
unclean. Lev. xiii. 14. 
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red 
After the Danish sword. Shak., Hamlet, iv. 3. 62. 
7. Feeling sore, as from abrasion of the skin; 
harshly painful ; galled. 
And all his sinews waxen weak and raw 
Through long imprisonment. 
Spenser, F. Q., L x. 2. 
Sec. Gent. Have you no fearful dreams? 
Steph. Sometimes, as all have 
That go to bed with raw and windy stomachs. 
Fletcher, Pilgrim, ill 7. 
8. In ceram . , unbaked that is, either fresh from 
the potters' wheel or the mold, or merely dried 
without the use of artificial heat Raw edge, 
that edge of any textile fabric which is not finished with 
a selvage, nor hemmed or bound or otherwise secured, 
and which is therefore liable to ravel out. Raw hide. 
See Aid2 and rawhide.- Raw material oil, sienna, 
Silk, etc. See the nouns. = Syn. Raw, Crude. These 
words, the same in ultimate origin and in earlier mean- 
ing, have drawn somewhat apart. Raw continues to ap- 
ply to food which is not yet cooked, as raw potatoes ; but 
4978 
crude has lost that meaning. Raw is applied to material 
not yet manufactured, as cotton, silk ; crude rather to that 
which is not refined, as petroleum, or matured, as a theory 
or an idea. 
II. w. 1. A raw article, material, or product. 
Specifically (o) An uncooked oyster, or an oyster of a 
kind preferred for eating raw: as, a plate of raws. [Col- 
loq.] (6) Raw sugar. {Colloq. or trade use.) 
The stock of raws on hand on the 31st of December, 1884, 
amounted to 1,000,000 kilograms. 
U. S. Cons. Rep., No. Ix. (1886X p. 98. 
2. A raw, galled, or sore place ; an established 
sore, as on a horse; hence, soreness or sensi- 
tiveness of feeling or temper. [Colloq.] 
Like savage hackney coachmen, they know where there 
is a raw. De Quincey. (Webster.) 
It's a tender subject, and every one has a raw on it. 
Lever, Davenport Dunn. 
Here is Bayneg, . . . in a dreadfully wicked, murderous, 
and dissatisfied state of mind. His chafing, bleeding tem- 
per is one raw ; his whole soul one rage and wrath. 
Thackeray, Philip, xxvii. 
3. In bot., same as rag 1 , 3 (6). [Prov. Eug.] 
To touch one on the raw, to irritate one by alluding 
to or joking him about any matter in respect to which he 
is especially sensitive. 
raw- (ra), n. An obsolete or dialectal form of 
row 2 . 
Clarers and his Highlandmen 
Came down upo' the raw. 
Battle of EUliecrankie (Child's Ballads, VIL 153). 
rawbonet (ra'bon), o. [<.raw l + bone,n.] Same 
as raw-boned. Spenser, F. Q., IV. v. 34. 
raw-boned (ra'bond), a. Having little flesh on 
the bones ; lean and large-boned ; gaunt. 
Lean raw-boned rascals ! who would e'er suppose 
They had such courage and audacity? 
Shak., IHen. VI., i. 2.35. 
rawhead (ra'hed), . 1. A specter; a nursery 
bugbear of frightful aspect: usually coupled 
with bloody-bones. 
I was told before 
My face was bad enough ; but now I look 
Like Bloody-Bone and Raw-Head, to fright children. 
Fletcher (and another"!), Prophetess, iv. 4. 
The indiscretion of servants, whose usual method is to 
awe children, and keep them in subjection, by telling 
them of raw-head and Moody-bones. 
Locke, Education, 138. 
2. The cream which rises on the surface of 
raw milk, or milk that has not been heated. 
Halliicell. [Prov. Eng.] 
rawhide (ra'hid), n. and a. [< raw 1 -I- hidel, n.] 
I. n. 1. The material of un tanned skins of 
cattle, very hard and tough when twisted in 
strips for ropes or the like, and dried. 2. A 
riding-whip made of twisted rawhide. 
II. a. Made of rawhide : as, a rawhide whip. 
rawish (ra'ish), a. [< rate 1 + -is* 1 .] Some- 
what raw; rather raw, in any sense of that 
word. 
The rau-ifh dank of clumsy winter. 
Marston, Prol. to Antonio's Revenge. 
rawly (ra'li), adv. 1. In a raw, crude, un- 
finished, immature, or untempered manner; 
crudely; roughly. 
Nothing is so prosaic as the rawly new. 
W. W. Story, Roba di Roma, i. 
2f. In an unprepared or unprovided state. 
Some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left 
poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some 
upon their children rawly left. Shak., Hen. V., iv. 1. 147. 
rawness (ra'nes), n. [< ME. rawenes, rawnesse, 
rownes ; \ raw 1 + -ness.] 1. The state or qual- 
ity of being raw, in any sense. 
Of what Comodity such vse of arte wilbe in our tounge 
may partely be seene by the scholasticall rawnesse of some 
newly Commen from the vniuersities. 
Booke of Precedence (E. E. T. S., extra ser.), i. 2. 
Much if not most of this rawness in the use of English 
must come, not merely from defective training In schools, 
but from defective training at home. 
The Nation, XLVin. S92. 
2t. Unprepared or precipitate manner; want 
of provision or foresight. 
Why in that rawness left you wife and child, . . . 
Without leave-taking? Shak., Macbeth, iv. 3. 26. 
rawnsaket, v. t. An old form of ransack. 
raw-port (ra'port), . A port-hole in a small 
sailing vessel through which in a calm an oar 
can be worked. 
raw-pot (ra'pot), n. A young crow. [Local, 
Irish.] 
The crows . . . feeding the young rawpots that kicked 
up such a bobbery in their nests wid hunger. 
Mrs. S. C. Hall, Sketches of Irish Char., p. 36. 
rax (raks), v. [< ME. raxen, roxeti, ranken, 
rosken, stretch oneself, < AS. *racsan, raxan, 
stretch oneself after sleep; with formative -s 
(as in cleanse, rinse, etc.), from the root of rack 1 , 
stretch: see rack 1 .] I. trans. To stretch, or 
ray 
stretch out ; reach out ; reach or attain to ; ex- 
tend the hand to; hand: as, rax me ower the 
pitcher. [North. Eng. and Scotch.] 
He raise, and raxed him where he stood, 
And bade him match him with his marrows. 
Raid of the Reidswire (Child's Ballads, VI. 134). 
When ye gang to see a man that never did ye nae ill 
raxing a halter [that is, hanging], 
Scott, Heart of Mid-Lothian, v. 
So he ra.cc* his hand across t' table, an' mutters summat 
as he grips mine. Mrs. GaskeU, Sylvia's Lovers, xliii. 
II. intrans. To perform the act of reaching 
or stretching; stretch one's self; reach for or 
try to obtain something. [North. Eng. and 
Scotch.] 
raxlet, v. i. [ME. raxlen, roxlen, rasclen, a var. 
or f req. of raxen, stretch : see rax.] To stretch 
one's self ; rouse up from sleep. Compare rax. 
I railed & fel in gret affray [after a dream]. 
Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), i. 1173. 
Benedicite he by-gan with a bolke and hus brcst knokede, 
Rascled and remed and routte at the laste. 
Piers Plowman (C), viii. 7. 
ray 1 (ra), n. [< ME. raye, < OF. ray, rai, raid, 
F". rai, a spoke, ray, = Pr. rai, raig, rait, 
spoke, ray, = Sp. rayo, a spoke, ray, thunder- 
bolt, right line, radius, radio, radius, = Pg. raio, 
a spoke, ray, thunderbolt, radio, radius, = It. 
razzo, a spoke, ray, beam, raggio, a ray, beam, 
radius, radio, ray; also in fern., OF. rate, F. 
rate, a line, stroke, = Pr. Sp. raya, a line, 
streak, stroke, limit, boundary (see ray 2 ); (. L. 
radius, a staff, rod, a beam or ray, etc. : see 
radius.] 1. Light emitted in a given direc- 
tion from a luminous body; a line of light, 
or, more generally, of radiant energy; tech- 
nically, the straight line perpendicular to the 
wave-front in the propagation of a light- or 
heat-wave. For different waves the rays may have 
different wave-lengths. Thus, in a pencil or beam of 
light, which is conceived to be made up of an indefinite 
number of rays, the rays all have the same wave-length if 
the beam is monochromatic ; but if it is of white Tight, 
the wave-lengths of the rays vary by Insensible degrees 
from that of red to that of violet light. (See radiant energy 
(under energy\ spectrum.) A collection of parallel rays 
constitutes a beam; a collection of diverging or converg- 
ing rays a pencil. 
Full many a gem of purest ray serene 
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear. 
Gray, Elegy. 
2. A beam of intellectual light. 
A ray of reason stole 
Half through the solid darkness of his soul. 
Pope, Dunciad, iii. 225. 
3. A stripe; streak; line. 
Wrought with little rates, streames, or streaks. 
Baret, Alvearie, 1580. 
4. In geom., an unlimited straight line. As it is 
desirable to give the line different names according as it 
is conceived (1) as a locus of points, (2) as an intersection 
of planes, or (3) as an element of a plane, in 1865 the prac- 
tice was begun of calling the unlimited straight line con- 
sidered as a locus of points a ray. But as it was found 
that the word did not readily suggest that idea, owing to 
other associations, the practice was changed, and the line 
so considered is now called a range, while the word ray is 
taken to mean an unlimited straight line as an element 
of a plane. In older geometrical writings ray is synon- 
ymous with radius, while a line considered as a radial 
emanation is called a beam. 
5. In bot. : (o) One of the branches or pedicels 
in an umbel. (6) The marginal part as opposed 
to the central part or disk in a head, umbel, or 
other flower-cluster, when there is a difference 
of structure, as in many Composite and in wild 
hydrangeas, (c) A ray-flower, (d) A radius. 
See medullary rays, under medullary. 6. One 
of the ray-like processes or arms of the Badiata, 
as of a starfish ; a radiated or radiating part or 
organ ; an actinomere. See cuts under Asterias 
and Aster iidse. 7. One of the hard spinous or 
soft jointed processes which support and serve 
to extend the fin of a fish ; a part of the skele- 
ton of the fin ; specifically, one which is articu- 
lated, thus contradistinguished from a hard or 
inarticulated one called specifically a spine; a 
fin-ray. 8. In entom., one of the longitudinal 
nervures or veins of an insect's wing. 9. jil. 
In her. : (a) Long indentations or dents by 
which a heraldic line is broken, whether di- 
viding two parts of the escutcheon or bound- 
ing any ordinary. Compare radiant, 3 (a). 
(6) A representation of rays, whether issuing 
from the sun or from a corner of the escutch- 
eon, a cloud, or an ordinary. They are sometimes 
straight, sometimes waving, and sometimes alternately 
straight and waving; it is in the last form that they 
are usually represented when surrounding the sun. 
Branchial ray, branchiostegal rays. See the ad- 
jectives. Calorific rays, heat-rays. See heat and spec- 
trum. Cone of rays. See cone. Deviation of a ray 
of light. See deviation. Direct rays. See direct illu- 
mination, under direct. Divergent rays. See divergent. 
