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Rake vs Harrow - What's the difference?

rake | harrow |

As nouns the difference between rake and harrow

is that rake is a garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed to a long handle, used for collecting grass or debris, or for loosening soil while harrow is a device consisting of a heavy framework having several disks or teeth in a row, which is dragged across ploughed land to smooth or break up the soil, to remove weeds or cover seeds; a harrow plow.

As verbs the difference between rake and harrow

is that rake is to use a rake on (leaves, debris, soil, a lawn, etc) in order to loosen, gather together, or remove debris from while harrow is to drag a harrow over; to break up with a harrow.

As an interjection harrow is

a call for help, or of distress, alarm etc.

rake

English

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Etymology 1

(etyl) raca, from (etyl)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed to a long handle, used for collecting grass or debris, or for loosening soil.
  • *
  • *:Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake -handle served as a shaft.
  • A lot, plenty.
  • :
  • (lb) The direction of slip during fault movement. The rake is measured within the fault plane.
  • (lb) The sloped edge of a roof at or adjacent to the first or last rafter.
  • (lb) A set of coupled rail vehicles, normally coaches or wagons.
  • :
  • (lb) A puffer that emits a stream of spaceships rather than a trail of debris.
  • The scaled commission fee taken by a cardroom operating a poker game.
  • A toothed machine drawn by a horse, used for collecting hay or grain; a horserake.
  • (lb) A fissure or mineral vein traversing the strata vertically, or nearly so.
  • Synonyms
    * (rail transport)
    Derived terms
    * thin as a rake

    Verb

    (rak)
  • To use a rake on (leaves, debris, soil, a lawn, etc) in order to loosen, gather together, or remove debris from.
  • We raked all the leaves into a pile
  • To search thoroughly.
  • Detectives appeared, roped the curious people out of the grounds, and raked the place for clews. -- Captain John Blaine
  • * Dryden
  • raking in Chaucer for antiquated words
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • The statesman rakes the town to find a plot.
  • To spray with gunfire.
  • the enemy machine guns raked the roadway
  • To claw at; to scratch.
  • Her sharp fingernails raked the side of my face.
  • * Wordsworth
  • like clouds that rake the mountain summits
  • To gather, especially quickly (often as rake in)
  • The casino is just raking in the cash; it's like a license to print money.
  • To pass with violence or rapidity; to scrape along.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • Pas could not stay, but over him did rake .
    Synonyms
    * (search thoroughly) comb, go over or through with a fine-tooth comb, scour

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) raken, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Slope, divergence from the horizontal or perpendicular
  • Verb

    (rak)
  • To proceed rapidly; to move swiftly.
  • (obsolete) To guide; to direct
  • To incline from a perpendicular direction.
  • A mast rakes aft.

    Etymology 3

    Shortening of rakehell, possibly from

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A man habituated to immoral conduct.
  • We now have rakes in the habit of Roman senators, and grave politicians in the dress of Rakes. — the Spectator
    Synonyms
    *

    Verb

    (rak)
  • (UK, dialect, dated) To walk about; to gad or ramble idly.
  • (UK, dialect, dated) To act the rake; to lead a dissolute, debauched life.
  • (Shenstone)

    Etymology 4

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (provincial, Northern England) a course; direction; stretch.
  • (provincial, Northern England, for animals) a range, stray.
  • a sheep-raik'' = a ''sheep-walk

    Verb

    (rak)
  • (provincial, Northern England) To run or rove.
  • References

    *

    harrow

    English

    Etymology 1

    Either representing unattested (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A device consisting of a heavy framework having several disks or teeth in a row, which is dragged across ploughed land to smooth or break up the soil, to remove weeds or cover seeds; a harrow plow.
  • * 1918 , Louise & Aylmer Maude, trans. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina , Oxford 1998, p. 153:
  • He sent for the carpenter, who was under contract to be with the threshing-machine, but it turned out that he was mending the harrows , which should have been mended the week before Lent.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1960 , author= , title=(Jeeves in the Offing) , section=chapter X , passage=“It may be fun for her,” I said with one of my bitter laughs, “but it isn't so diverting for the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she plunges so ruthlessly in the soup.”}}
  • * 1969 , Bessie Head, When Rain Clouds Gather , Heinemann 1995, p. 28:
  • Part of your job would be to learn tractor ploughing and the use of planters, harrows , and cultivators.
  • (military) An obstacle formed by turning an ordinary harrow upside down, the frame being buried.
  • See also
    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To drag a harrow over; to break up with a harrow.
  • * Bible, Job xxxix. 10
  • Will he harrow the valleys after thee?
  • * 1719
  • When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow it.
  • To traumatize or disturb; to frighten or torment.
  • The headless horseman harrowed Ichabod Crane as he tried to reach the bridge.
  • To break or tear, as with a harrow; to wound; to lacerate; to torment or distress; to vex.
  • * Rowe
  • my aged muscles harrowed up with whips
  • * Shakespeare
  • I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word / Would harrow up thy soul.
    Derived terms
    * harrowing * Harrowing of Hell

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) haro, harou, of uncertain origin.

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (obsolete) A call for help, or of distress, alarm etc.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.vi:
  • Harrow , the flames, which me consume (said hee) / Ne can be quencht, within my secret bowels bee.

    References