Raffle
/ˈɹæfl̩/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A drawing, often held as a fundraiser, in which tickets or chances are sold to win a prize.
"He entered a raffle to win a lifetime supply of toothpaste, but he did not win."
- 2 Refuse; rubbish. uncountable
- 3 a lottery in which the prizes are goods rather than money wordnet
- 4 A game of dice in which the player who throws three of the same number wins all the stakes. obsolete
- 5 The system by which cases are assigned to judges in multi-sala courts. Philippines
Verb
- 1 To award something by means of a raffle or random drawing. often, transitive
"They raffled off four gift baskets."
- 2 dispose of in a lottery wordnet
- 3 To participate in a raffle. intransitive
"to raffle for a watch"
Example
More examples"Have you bought a raffle ticket yet?"
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English rafle, from Old French rafle, raffle (“dice game", also "plundering”), from rafler (“to snatch, seize, carry off”), from Frankish *raffolōn, from Proto-Germanic *hrapōną, *hrēpōną (“to scratch, touch, pluck out, snatch”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreb(h)-, *(s)kerb(h)- (“to turn, bend, shrink”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Middle Dutch raffel (“dice game”), German raffen (“to snatch away, sweep off”), Old English hreppan (“to touch, treat, attack”).
Etymology 2
See raff.