Rake

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /ɹeɪk/

Definitions

1. An implement characterized by its extended handle and pronged edge, typically utilized in gardening for collecting leaves or soil, functioning also as an action to scrape away loose material
2. A tool featuring a long handle and a row of tines, mainly employed to gather leaves or soil while also applying to the action of smoothing or scraping surfaces
3. A long-handled instrument with teeth used for leveling soil or gathering debris, also meaning to scrape or drag something with such a tool

Etymology: The garden tool is older than the word's sense of a rake as a dissolute man, though the two share one ancient root. Old English "raca" named a tool with a row of pointed teeth, and it passed into Middle English as "rake" with the same meaning. Its relatives across the Germanic languages, from German "Rechen" to Swedish "raka," keep the tool's name alive in nearly every neighbouring tongue. The verb grew from two sources. One is the noun itself, used for gathering things with a rake. The other is Old Norse "raka," meaning "to scrape," which gave Middle English "raken" senses ranging from gathering and clearing debris to covering over something, or even concealing or destroying it. Those strands merged into the modern verb, which still carries the sense of sweeping something together.

Synonyms: gather, collect