raffish

adjective

raff·​ish ˈra-fish 

1

: marked by or suggestive of flashy vulgarity or crudeness

2

: marked by a careless unconventionality : rakish

raffishly adverb

raffishness noun

Did you know?

Raffish sounds like it should mean "resembling raff." But what is raff? Originally, "raff" was a word meaning "rubbish"; it derived from Middle English "raf," and it was being used for trash and refuse back in the 1400s. Around a century later, English speakers were also using the word riffraff to mean "disreputable characters" or "rabble." The origins of "riffraff" are distinct from the "rubbish" sense of "raff"; "riffraff" derived from an Anglo-French phrase meaning "one and all." By the mid-1500s, the similarities between "raff" and "riffraff" had prompted people to start using the two words as synonyms, and "raff" gained a "rabble" sense. It was that ragtag "raff" that gave rise to the adjective "raffish" in the late 1700s.

Synonyms

• coarse
• common
• crass
• crude
• gross
• ill-bred
• illiberal [archaic]
• incult
• insensible
• low
• lowbred
• lowbrow
• rough
• rough-hewn
• roughneck
• rude
• rugged
• tasteless
• uncouth
• uncultivated
• uncultured
• unpolished
• unrefined
• vulgar

Examples of raffish in a Sentence

the dowager cringed at the thought of raffish tourists in rough boots tromping all over her Persian rugs

Recent Examples on the Web

The sun was setting, leaving a band of neon orange clinging to the horizon; around us, raffish cliques sipped esoteric cocktails, shared platters of roast chicken, flitted between languages, and seemed, to my eyes, immune to worldly stress. —David Amsden, Travel + Leisure, 14 May 2024

The present headquarters of the Andy Warhol Factory are, despite the raffish image, surprisingly elegant and ordered: typewriters click, business machines whir, telephones ring and are answered by trim and efficient secretaries. —Stephen Birmingham, Town & Country, 10 Aug. 2023

Although Clodagh ignores the warnings of the General’s raffish agent Mr. Dean (Alessandro Nivola), isolation and illness soon take their toll, with the haunting atmosphere of the palace particularly affecting volatile Sister Ruth (Aisling Franciosi). —Clark Collis, EW.com, 21 Sep. 2020

But his hopes had been stirred up watching leading men in Hindi matinees: a grandiose Dilip Kumar in Naya Daur, a raffish Mithun Chakraborty in Mrigayaa. —Hazlitt, 28 Apr. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1795, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

raffish

adjective

raff·​ish ˈraf-ish 

1

: vulgarly crude or flashy

raffish language

2

: careless about moral behavior : disreputable

raffishly adverb

raffishness noun