raff


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raff

(ræf)
n
1. rubbish; refuse
2. rabble or riffraff
[C14: perhaps from Old French rafle a snatching up; compare raffle, riffraff]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

raff

(ræf)

n.
riffraff; rabble.
[1665–75; extracted from riffraff]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

Raff

 a promiscuous pile; a jumble; a rabble. See also mob, riff-raff.
Examples: raff of errors, 1677; of fellows, 1826; the raff or refuse of the river, 1838.
Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
The elder one, Morgan, was a huge man, bronzed and moustached, with a deep bass voice and an almost guttural speech, and the other, Raff, was slight and effeminate, with nervous hands and watery, washed-out gray eyes, who spoke with a faint indefinable accent that was hauntingly reminiscent of the Cockney, and that was yet not Cockney of any brand she had ever encountered.
"Whatever Morgan and Raff are willing to pay for it." A glance at her hurt expression decided him.
But you needn't sell to Morgan and Raff. I shall go down to Sydney on the next steamer, and I'll come back in a second-hand schooner.
So I says, a raff is what I's arter; it doan' MAKE no track.
"I see a light a-comin' roun' de p'int bymeby, so I wade' in en shove' a log ahead o' me en swum more'n half way acrost de river, en got in 'mongst de drift- wood, en kep' my head down low, en kinder swum agin de current tell de raff come along.
I went into de woods en jedged I wouldn' fool wid raffs no mo', long as dey move de lantern roun' so.
First she played only for a little, then for five-franc pieces, then for Napoleons, then for notes: then she would not be able to pay her month's pension: then she borrowed from the young gentlemen: then she got into cash again and bullied Madame de Borodino, whom she had coaxed and wheedled before: then she was playing for ten sous at a time, and in a dire state of poverty: then her quarter's allowance would come in, and she would pay off Madame de Borodino's score and would once more take the cards against Monsieur de Rossignol, or the Chevalier de Raff.
It's poor work goin' wi' such raff. But you war allays a rare un at shying, Mr.
Jostling with unemployed labourers of the lowest class, ballast-heavers, coal-whippers, brazen women, ragged children, and the raff and refuse of the river, he makes his way with difficulty along, assailed by offensive sights and smells from the narrow alleys which branch off on the right and left, and deafened by the clash of ponderous waggons that bear great piles of merchandise from the stacks of warehouses that rise from every corner.
In their experience as 3(38) service matchmakers, Edwards and Raff point to two basic agenda items advisers must fulfill at the start of this type of relationship to prevent misunderstandings and even potential compliance lapses.
Raff as director and medical advisor in translational medicine as of January 28, 2019, the company said.