Etymology: < Middle French raffle (French rafle ) game of chance played with dice, in which all money in the pool can be won by one throw (1371), the winning throw in this game, in which all dice show the same number (a1589), transferred use (with reference to the pool being ‘swept clean’) of rafle rake for cleaning a fireplace (13th cent. in Old French as rafe ; also raffe , raphe ) < Middle High German raffel (see note; German Raffel flax comb, rake, grater) < raffen (see raff v.) + -el , suffix forming nouns (see -le suffix). Compare post-classical Latin raffla (1362 in a French source), Dutch rafel , raffel (1642 denoting the game, 1657 denoting the winning throw). Compare later raffle v.¹ and the French verb cited at that entry.Middle High German raffel is of uncertain sense, perhaps ‘flax comb’; it occurs (in form ragel , apparently a transmission error) in an isolated attestation in a glossary, where it translates post-classical Latin tradulus (apparently first attested in this gloss; subsequently in 15th- and 16th-cent. Latin-German glossaries in senses ‘flax comb’ and ‘spindle’; of unknown origin). Sense 2 is not paralleled in French and appears to be an English development. Compare Middle French, French rafle booty (1585), clean sweep (1645 in faire rafle to make a clean sweep, to grab everything (now rare)).

Etymology: Probably < raff n.³ + -le suffix 1. Sense 2b may show a different origin; compare the β. forms at ravel v.¹, and also ravel n.² Compare earlier rabble n.¹ I., and also riff-raff n.¹Perhaps also compare Middle French sans y laisser rifle ou rafle without leaving anything whatsoever behind (1420), Middle French, French †ne riffle ne raffle , French †ni rifle ni rafle nothing at all (1564), all reduplicative formations (with vowel variation) < Middle French rifler (see rifle v.¹; compare also riff and raff adv. and see discussion at that entry). Although N.E.D. (1903) tentatively suggests the element raffle, rafle in these phrases as the etymon of the English word, this seems unlikely on semantic grounds.

Etymology: < French rafle net with several entrances used in fishing, net with double mesh used to catch birds (both 1680), transferred use of rafle raffle n.¹ Compare German Raffel (c1690 as †raffle; < French). N.E.D. (1903) gives the pronunciation as (ræ·f'l) /ˈræf(ə)l/.

Etymology: < raffle n.¹ Compare French rafler to make a clean sweep of (something) (1573 in Middle French), to sweep the stakes in the game of raffle (1606 as †raphler , †raffler ; < rafle raffle n.¹). Compare earlier rifle v.² and discussion at that entry.

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps a variant of ruffle v.¹ Compare earlier raffled adj.¹, and perhaps also ravel v.² N.E.D. (1903) compares Swedish (chiefly regional) raffla to scrape, to grate (early 19th cent.; now chiefly ‘(of food or drink) to irritate the throat or stomach’; of uncertain origin, perhaps < German), French érafler to graze (end of the 15th cent. in Middle French as esraflee (feminine past participle); < é- (see es- prefix) + rafle rake for fireplaces: see raffle n.¹), but these are not close semantic parallels, and the resemblance between them and the English verb may well be coincidental.

Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps a variant of ruffle v.² Compare earlier raffler n.²