c1300 in T. Hunt Pop. Med. 13th-cent. Eng. (1990) v. 251 Item pro subbito assensu matricis, hoc est aþye þe verliche rakynggys off þe modyr to wommanhis hert.

1825 T. Moore Life R. B. Sheridan 700 Burke, we know, was, even for his own time, too much addicted to what the falconers would call raking, or flying wide of his game.

1828 J. S. Sebright Observ. Hawking (new ed.) 47 Buzzards, Sparrow~hawks..fly near the ground, and take their prey by what is called raking.

1952 Encycl. Brit. XI. 274/2 They pursue their pray by raking.

1573 T. Tusser Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husbandry f. 55 Where barley is raked, (if dealing be true) the tenth of such raeking, to person is due.

1574 J. Whitgift Def. Aunswere to Admon. viii. 395 You talke in another place of raking of Doctors to proue my purpose, but if these be not rakings of scriptures, gathered togither to no purpose, for the confirming of your fonde deuises, I know not what you should meane by the name of rakings.

a1642 H. Best Farming & Memorandum Bks. (1984) 48 A fewe of these rakins will serve to blacken and spoyle a greate deale of better corne.

1738 Cases King's Bench William III 235 One may Libel in the Spiritual Court for Tithe of Rakings of Corn.

1768 Summ. Bill for Paving, Cleansing & Enlightening City of Exeter 2 That the Filth, Dung, and Rakings of the Streets, shall be vested in the Commissioners, to be by them farmed.

1795 R. Burroughes Farming Jrnl. (1995) 15 Nov. 70 Amond threshed a load of oat rakings.

1850 H. Melville White-jacket xxxvi. 177 It is incredible that..such crews..composed..of the most desperate characters, the rakings of the jails..could have been governed by the mere memory of the lash.

1870 Trans. Illinois State Agric. Soc. 1867–8 7 434 The supply of hogs..appeared to be made up of the rakings and sweepings of the country.

1894 Bulletin (Sydney) 16 June 20/1 ‘P'raps you've got some rakings?’ ‘Eh?’ ‘Rakings—dust—let's try yer pipe-pockets.’ We fossicked out pockets and linings and got fluff, and devils dust, and tobacco-scraps enough to fill two pipes.

1931 T. Dreiser Dawn xcii. 573 The city had grown so fast and assembled such vast hordes of rovers and loafers and crooks and God knows what—the rakings of the slums of the world.

1977 Times 24 Dec. 14/5 A series of ovens had been cut into the back of the rampart, their rakings being deposited in the abandoned ditch of the superseded marching camp.

1992 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 4 July b2 The town of Geddes will stop picking up lawn rakings set out in plastic bags as of Monday.

1610 G. Markham Maister-peece xci. 176 You are to take with you this generall rule..which is, neuer to administer either suppositary or glister, but first immediatly before you giue it, to rake your horse, which raking is in this maner [etc.].

1726 N. B. Farrier's & Horseman's Dict. 366 Raking of a Horse, is to draw his Ordure out of his Fundament when he cannot dung.

1805 Trans. Soc. Arts 23 108 Clysters and raking afford much relief.

1842 W. C. Spooner White's Compend. Vet. Art (ed. 17) 527 In some cases..the straight gut is so loaded with hard dung that raking is a necessary operation.

1674 C. Cotton Compl. Gamester i. 29 Have a care of raking, for..it is a fault, hardly excusable.

1873 J. Bennett & ‘Cavendish’ Billiards i. 7 Trailing (or raking), that is, following the ball with the mace to such a convenient distance from the other ball as to make it an easy hazard.

1852 Davenport (Iowa) Gaz. 13 Mar. 2/3 Kossuth's speech was remarkable peculiarly, for the raking down given the Jesuits and the raking up conferred upon the Irish.

1883 J. D. Shields Life & Times S. S. Prentiss 125 He cheerfully paid it, vowing that the ‘raking down’ which Prentiss had given his prosecutor was worth that.

1907 Black Cat Jan. 7 I'll bet somebody has got a raking for losing it.

2001 P. Veryan Riddle Shipwrecked Spinster 312 He had to endure a royal raking down before he was able to tell her of Florian's innocence.

1557 in J. Raine Wills & Inventories N. Counties Eng. (1835) I. 159 A chespresse & a rakinge croke.

1572 in J. Raine Wills & Inventories N. Counties Eng. (1835) I. 349 The Kitching. One Raking croke, one Iron por, one pele, one iron coulrake ij^s viij^d.

1866 Engineering 1 340 Raking Machinery for the River Hooghly.

1954 Portsmouth (New Hampsh) Herald 15 July 6/4 The boy, Stephen Marston, jumped on the clutch of a tractor when William Bayley's dungarees were snagged in raking machinery attached to the tractor.

1866 Engineering 1 340 A steamer to be used in the raking operations.

2005 Weekly Times (Melbourne) (Nexis) 21 Sept. 101 Many of these older tractors were being used for transport, higher speed raking operations, [etc.].

a1859 W. Watt Poems & Songs (1860) 233 Syne rumbled up the rakin' coal, That shaw'd his shin a' bluid.

1863 E. C. Gaskell Sylvia's Lovers I. xiii. 276 Philip went about undoing the shutters, and trying to break up the raking coal, with as little noise as might be.

1935 D. Kirkwood Life of Revolt 55 The ‘rakin' coal’ was the equivalent in the home of damping down the fire in the works or smooring the fire in the Highlands.

c1620 Treat. Shipbuilding (modernized text) in W. Salisbury & R. C. Anderson Treat. Shipbuilding & Treat. Rigging (1958) 6 The raking both of the stem and stern..is the overhanging of the work afore and abaft the keel.

1690 H. Coggeshall Art of Pract. Measuring iii. xx. 51 (table) Raking forw. of the Stem, 13.5..Raking backw. of the Stern, 4.

1794 R. Liddel Seaman's New Vade Mecum (ed. 2) 263 (heading) Raking of masts.

1800 J. Charnock Hist. Marine Archit. I. vi. 72 The advantage gained in length by the raking of the stem and stern.

1847 R. Kipping Elements Sailmaking 4 With this increased support the lateen sails could not be so effectually used, which no doubt gave rise to the raking of the masts with Bermuda sails.

1962 Jrnl. Soc. Archit. Historians 21 174/2 The raking of the central cornice section relieved the truncated appearance of the original scheme.

2003 N. Brandt Chicago Death Trap ii. 16 The third entry,..leading to the back rows of the dress circle, where the raking was most pronounced, required walking up three steps.

1860–4 Dict. Archit. (Archit. Publ. Soc.) at Jump Instead of making abrupt jumps, it is better to let the brickwork rise gradually in step courses. This operation is called ‘raking back’.

1946 J. Holgate & H. McDougall Bricklaying vi. 88 Corbling and raking are also largely used in the building of chimney flues. Since a chimney flue always runs upwards at an angle, raking is necessary on one side and corbling on the other.

1983 W. G. Nash Brickwork (ed. 3) Index 152/3 Raking back.

1700 G. Farquhar Constant Couple i. i. 7 [He] usurps Gentility, where he may die by Raking.

1723 D. Defoe Hist. Col. Jack (ed. 2) 75 Something..kept me from the other degrees of Raking and Vice.

1800 Sporting Mag. 17 90/2 Raking, which ruins most constitutions, was far from spoiling his.

1828 Lights & Shades Eng. Life I. 124 I didn't waste my health and my money in drinking and raking.

1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People ix. §1. 589 Duelling and raking became the marks of a fine gentleman.

1905 G. E. Howard Preliminaries of Revol. ii. 45 Some of the foremost statesmen of the age were steeped to the core in vice. Gambling, drinking, and raking were patrician recreations.

2000 Belfast News Let. (Nexis) 11 Aug. 20 Back home he spent the remains of his days..raking, drinking, chasing women and on the run.

?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 170 (MED) Kyllyth knaue chylderyn and castyth hem in clay..doth rowncys rennyn with rakynge raftys tyl rybbys be to-rent with a reed ray.

1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. xxxi. 255 By the raking pace of my Mule, quoth Rondibilis, I know not what Answer to make to this Problem of yours.

1722 Quarles' Divine Fancies (ed. 9) III. lxviii. 113 Some ride upon the raking [1632 racking] Steeds of Treasure.

1794 Har'st Rig lxxx. 26 But raiking clouds now gather fast; And a' the lift does soon o'er cast.

1840 Southern Literary Messenger 6 346/2 A handsome raking-looking young fellow who just then entered the room.

1862 G. J. Whyte-Melville Inside Bar ii A well-bred, raking-looking sort of mare.

1883 C. J. Wills In Land of Lion & Sun 61 A big, coarse, raking chestnut, that took all the boy who rode him could do to hold him.

1945 Salamanca (N.Y.) Republican-Press 16 Feb. 6/6 The Russians are using a new raking looking tank called the Pike.

1959 W. Thesiger Arabian Sands (1964) iii. 70 The boy..moved with a long, raking stride, like a camel.

1992 Athletics Today 12 Aug. (Suppl.) 17/1 At touchdown after the first hurdle, Young was alongside Akabusi, his raking stride beating out once again the relentless 13-stroke rhythm.

1929 Times 5 Dec. 7/4 A little kiss cushion cannon was made with the same confidence as a raking long-range losing hazard.

1951 Times 12 Mar. 2/4 Much of the mid-field artistry and instinctive link in approach was splendid, with Newcastle moving forward with long, raking passes to their wingers.

1985 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) (Nexis) 25 June Lamb was the clear difference between the two teams in the first half with his long raking kicks from general play sending Manly scuttling back into their quarter.

1991 Independent (Nexis) 9 Dec. 30 Glenn Cockerill, whose raking passes Shearer thrives on, swept the ball forward again in the 54th minute.

2002 N. Giller Billy Wright 298 He immediately sent a long raking ball over Billy's head and, as he did so, the centre-forward took off to chase it.

a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 199 A refing sonne of rakyng Muris.

1581 T. Newton tr. Seneca Thebais i, in T. Newton et al. tr. Seneca 10 Trag. f. 42 Dost thou not playnly see, how he my panting Ghost With raking pawes doth hale and pull?

1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. ix. ix. 528/2 Daily did he send his raking Clerks..to delude the King, and still purloine his Subiects.

1667 J. Dryden Annus Mirabilis 1666 lxxxii. 21 Raking Chace-guns through our sterns they send.

1676 T. Mace Musick's Monument xiv. 90 There is only the last Barr of it to speak to, in which is a Full Stop; the first part of it, is to be struck with a Raking, or Brushing-stroak, downwards, by the Thumb.

1743 London Mag. July 352/1 The noisy rout of raking blades Remote from reason's friendly aids, Provoke my rage and spleen.

1797 Sir J. Jervis in Ld. Nelson Disp. & Lett. (1845) II. 404 (note) The Launch..was sunk by a raking shot from the Enemy's gun boats.

1825 W. N. Glascock Naval Sketch-bk. (1826) I. 30 Never mind, in closing with Crappo, if we didn't buy it with his raking broadsides.

1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge i. 232 Being exposed to this raking fire of eyes.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. vii. [Aeolus] 121 He took off his silk hat and..welshcombed his hair with raking fingers.

1995 T. J. Dawson Kangaroos vi. 95 Heads are thrown back, which protects the eyes and ears from the raking claws.

1857 J. Ruskin Rep. Nat. Gallery Site Comm. 94/1 in Parl. Papers XXIV. 1 As soon as you decide a picture is to be seen, it is easy to find a way of showing it;..not [with] a raking light, as I heard Sir Charles Eastlake express it the other day, but an oblique and soft light, and not so near the picture as to catch the eye painfully.

1948 G. L. Stout Care of Pictures iv. 56 The change may be so small that it can be detected only with the help of special lighting. One such means is so-called ‘raking’ light, a beam thrown across the surface and almost in the plane of it.

1988 Pop. Photogr. Sept. 65 Strong, raking light creates a multitude of shadows that emphasize surface texture.

1665 E. Pearce Let. 24 Apr. in R. T. Gunther Archit. R. Pratt (1928) x. 130 I have measured both ye square ones [sc. mouldings] & ye rakeing ones for ye pediments.

1734 Builder's Dict. I Arch, draw the Raking Line AB, and set up the Height of the Arch from A to C.

1778 Encycl. Brit. I. 618/2 The square of the rail, with the raking line of the pitch-board drawn through the middle.

1801 Sketch Paris I. vi. 36 A pediment, whose raking columns are composed of two stones only.

1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast ix. 20 A long, sharp brig,..with raking masts.

1872 C. King Mountaineering in Sierra Nevada x. 208 Short boots, with high, raking heels.

1957 W. Bridges-Adams Irresistible Theatre xx. 229 Jones combined the raking stage of Serlio with a background that could be changed by means of periaktoi.

1983 J. S. Foster Struct. & Fabric (rev. ed.) I. iii. 241/2 Balustrades must..have sufficient raking members to stop people..falling through.

1999 J. D. Iams Painting Eastern Shore iii. 14 The skipjack is a vee-bottom, centerboard sailboat..with a single, raking mast.

1711 W. Sutherland Ship-builders Assistant 61 A Raking Arch.

1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. ii. i. 411 The model of a raking arch.

1999 J. S. Curl Dict. Archit. 30 Raking arch, rampant arch with one impost higher than the other.

1876 Notes Building Constr. II. xiii. 221 Raking Bond is of two kinds, Diagonal and Herringbone. In both the bricks in the interior of the wall are placed in directions oblique to the face.

1937 P. E. Thomas Mod. Building Pract. III. 294 The direction of the diagonal or raking bond is changed in each course to further strengthen the bond of the wall.

2007 A. Lyons Materials for Architects & Builders (ed. 3) i. 16/1 Panels of herringbone brickwork (raking bond), or dog tooth and dentil courses as in Victorian brickwork, can generate interesting features.

1733 F. Price Treat. Carpentry 29 Trace out the Raking Mould K.

1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 600 The face-mould..is also called the raking-mould.

1855 J. R. Perry Art of Stair Building 54 The face or raking mould of a hand rail, is nothing but the double section of a cylinder.

?1823 J. H. Payne Clari ii [Scenery for Act 3d] Set raking piece.

1839 S. C. Brees App. to Railway Pract. Gloss. 294 The best way of supporting the striking plates upon which the whole [bridge arch] rests, is by strutting or raking pieces resting upon sills laid upon the top of the footings.

1874 C. Reade Let. in J. Hollingshead Gaiety Chron. (1898) 139 Don't let the line of Kings [in Macbeth] go crushing down a raking piece, and pound the earth to show they are shadows. Draw them slowly and smoothly across the scene.

1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 1877/2 Raking-pieces, pieces laid upon sills supported by the footings or impost of a pier. Above them are the striking-plates.

1898 ‘P. McGinnis’ Bohemian Girl 124 The theatre was like a barn, and we had to get to our dressing-room up a raking-piece with ribs nailed across it.

1940 B. Hewitt Art & Craft Play Prod. vii. 159 A ground row or raking piece, representing rising ground.

1887 Dict. Archit. (Archit. Publ. Soc.) Raking plate, for housing a step in a partition.

1844 F. W. Simms Pract. Tunnelling ix. 86 For the insertion of each raking prop, a narrow space is first excavated from under the sill.

1875 J. B. McMaster Bridge & Tunnel Centres 81 The object in making some of these ribs without the tie beam is that, by so doing, the centring may be brought close up to the heading without interfering with the raking props.

1952 R. Hammond Civil Engin. Plant & Methods vi. 159 The two main cills [of the railway tunnel] are stayed by raking props.

1986 C. R. I. Clayton et al. Earth Pressure & Earth-retaining Structures (1993) xi. 272 The position of raking props should be checked, in order to ensure that potential failure surfaces..have a high factor of safety.

1974 Bricks: Their Prop. & Use (Brick Devel. Assoc.) i. 29 (caption) Raking Stretcher bond. Economical and more interesting than normal Stretcher Bond. Joints tend to become very prominent unless mortar colour is chosen with care.

1996 K. Thomas Masonry Walls xvi. 283 Raking Stretcher Bond..is an economical and perhaps more interesting version than normal Stretcher bond.

1725 W. Halfpenny Art of Sound Building v. 55 The following Machine..which is to turn Raking-Mouldings, Ballisters, or any other Raking-Work of that Kind.

1736 Neve's City & Country Purchaser's & Builder's Dict. (ed. 3) sig. Mm2 Raking-Work, that which (..in Mouldings, etc.) is to be join'd by Mitering exactly.

1696 C. Cibber Love's Last Shift i. 5 I..have e'en thought fit, like the rest of my raking Brother-hood, to Purge out my wild Humours with Matrimony.

a1704 T. Brown Declam. Praise Poverty (rev. ed.) in Wks. (1730) I. 98 A thoughtless, raking, roaring, drinking scoundrel.

1765 C. Johnstone Chrysal III. iii. xxiii. 271 Procuring the living for one of his raking companions.

1804 M. Edgeworth Manufacturers iii, in Pop. Tales II. 342 Mrs. Germaine, thanks to the raking hours she keeps,..looks full ten years older than she is.

1854 J. G. MacWalter Tales Ireland & Irish vii. 72 I won't be thrubled with a raking husband.

1881 Tinsley's Mag. Dec. 514/2 They interfered with..his dinners with the jockeys, his raking nights about town in company of Tom Killigrew.