Leaf-raking

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act or process of raking leaves. uncountable
  2. 2
    Marginally productive government-financed employment. US, derogatory, uncountable, usually

    "Relief was essential and began under Hoover; then, under Roosevelt, relief turned into leaf-raking, and leaf-raking turned into constructive enterprise."

Example

More examples

"Relief was essential and began under Hoover; then, under Roosevelt, relief turned into leaf-raking, and leaf-raking turned into constructive enterprise."

Etymology

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

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.