Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1990 (DOST Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Rake, Raik, Racke, v.² [e.m.E. and ME rake (13th c.), p.p. also rack (17th c.), f. Rak(e n.²] a. tr. To cover embers with ashes, etc., to keep a fire in overnight. b. To search (a place) thoroughly. Cf. the 16th c. Eng. phr. to rake hell (1542). c. To gather with, or as with, a rake. d. To search for (something) by, or as by, raking. e. intr., fig. To search into (a matter).a. 1513 Doug. viii vii 90.
The puyr wife, quhilk at evin had raik Hyr ingill —b. a1561 Norvell Meroure 62b.
[If] I shuld seke them … Throw … the Moirs of Inde, Syne rake hell, and the bodum of the sie [etc.] —c. 1610 Reg. Privy C. IX 52.
[While he was] raiking and wyning his hay [on the meadow (etc.)] —d. 1616 Fraserburgh Kirk S. 81 (27 Nov.).
That quhasoevir … salbe fund raiking sandelis or gathering onie other sort of baite [etc.] —e. ?c1675 J. Gordon Hist. II 143 n.
Mr. Thomas Abernethy … does … racke into thes ordurs, and omitts nothing