Word.ws English Dictionary

leaf-raking

leaf-raking noun: the act or process of raking leaves.

Noun

leaf-raking (uncountable)

  1. The act or process of raking leaves.
  2. (US, derogatory, usually) Marginally productive government-financed employment.
    • Relief was essential and began under Hoover; then, under Roosevelt, relief turned into leaf-raking, and leaf-raking turned into constructive enterprise.1955, Robert L. Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economists, page 225
    • public agencies were to plan building programs that would do the job and preserve communities from “the necessity of feeding hungry men through the expediency of 'leaf-raking' projects or the dole or soup lines.1991, Robert Dallek, Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960, volume 1

Origin of leaf-raking

Sense regarding employment: from the nature of some of the activities of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression in the US.

Questions about leaf-raking

What does leaf-raking mean?
Leaf-raking means the act or process of raking leaves.
What part of speech is leaf-raking?
Leaf-raking is a noun.

Words near leaf-raking in the dictionary

  1. leaf-nosed bats
  2. leaf-notcher
  3. leaf-notchers
  4. leaf-peeper
  5. leaf-peepers
  6. leaf-raking
  7. leaf-roller
  8. leaf-rollers
  9. leaf-rolling
  10. leaf-scale
  11. leaf-scales

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leaf-raking (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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