Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use rakish in a sentence

11 example sentences · adjective

Rakish means dashingly, carelessly, or sportingly unconventional or stylish; jaunty; characterized by a devil-may-care unconventionality; having a somewhat disreputable quality or appearance. Example: “A little later a rakish young workman, with a goatee beard and a swagger, lit his clay pipe at the lamp before descending into the street.”

Examples of rakish by meaning

adjectiveDashingly, carelessly, or sportingly unconventional or stylish; jaunty; characterized by a devil-may-care...

  • a hat worn at a rakish angle
  • A little later a rakish young workman, with a goatee beard and a swagger, lit his clay pipe at the lamp before descending into the street.1904 March 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y....
  • Jarvis Cocker and Russell Brand have both found fame as rakish British iconoclasts.2009 August 4, Dan Martin, “Jarvis Cocker writes songs for Russell Brand”, in The Guardian

More sentences with rakish

  • His hat sat at a rakish angle giving him a sporty appearance.2007, B. Lorraine Jones, Charles Augustus: A Boy's Will to Survive, page 29. From the entry sporty
  • Patterson grins a grin that he means to be rakish, but he's pretty sure it just comes off as gutshot.2014, Benjamin Whitmer, Cry Father, →ISBN, page 149. From the entry gutshot
  • He had to hold his Akubra at a rakish angle to keep from being blinded by the light.1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 61. From the entry Akubra
  • A strange white-faced man with wild eyes, toupee at a rakish tilt, twisted by cramp, armed with a Lee Enfield.1987, William Rushton, Spy Thatcher, London: Pavilion, →ISBN, page 119. From the entry think of England
  • But two of the tacks had fallen out, and the effect was now rakish, as that of a drunkard's bonnet.1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread, chapter 7, third paragraph. From the entry dignity
  • His long, rakish horns are mounted on a pedicle that extends above his head, thus accentuating the droll length of his features.1910, John T. McCutcheon, In Africa. From the entry pedicle
  • JamesTen, wearing tritoned Saturn Student Sneakers and a rakish Ruffalo pseudodacron UCLA Youth Shirt, adjusted his heavy pseudospecs and entered the shoddy plastic building housing E.T.T.T.P.U.1965, Frank Anmar, “The Fasterfaster Affair”, in William F. Nolan, editor, The Pseudo-People, Los Angeles, Calif.: Sherbourne Press…. From the entry tritoned
  • Blazes Boylan presented to the leaders’ skyblue frontlets and high action a skyblue tie, a widebrimmed straw hat at a rakish angle and a suit of indigo serge.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 10: Wandering Rocks]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey]…. From the entry skyblue

Meaning of rakish

  1. adjective Dashingly, carelessly, or sportingly unconventional or stylish; jaunty; characterized by a devil-may-care unconventionality; having a somewhat disreputable quality or appearance.
  2. adjective Like a rake; dissolute; profligate.

Full definition of rakish

Questions about rakish in a sentence

How do you use rakish in a sentence?
Rakish is used as an adjective. For example: “A little later a rakish young workman, with a goatee beard and a swagger, lit his clay pipe at the lamp before descending into the street.”
What is a short sentence with rakish?
“a hat worn at a rakish angle”
What does rakish mean?
Rakish means dashingly, carelessly, or sportingly unconventional or stylish; jaunty; characterized by a devil-may-care unconventionality; having a somewhat disreputable quality or appearance.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rakish (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use rakish in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/rakish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.