Raking

Rake \Rake\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Raked} (r[=a]kt); p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Raking}.] [AS. racian. See 1st {Rake}.]
   1. To collect with a rake; as, to rake hay; -- often with up;
      as, he raked up the fallen leaves.
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   2. Hence: To collect or draw together with laborious
      industry; to gather from a wide space; to scrape together;
      as, to rake together wealth; to rake together slanderous
      tales; to rake together the rabble of a town.
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   3. To pass a rake over; to scrape or scratch with a rake for
      the purpose of collecting and clearing off something, or
      for stirring up the soil; as, to rake a lawn; to rake a
      flower bed.
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   4. To search through; to scour; to ransack.
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            The statesman rakes the town to find a plot.
                                                  --Swift.
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   5. To scrape or scratch across; to pass over quickly and
      lightly, as a rake does.
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            Like clouds that rake the mountain summits.
                                                  --Wordsworth.
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   6. (Mil.) To enfilade; to fire in a direction with the length
      of; in naval engagements, to cannonade, as a ship, on the
      stern or head so that the balls range the whole length of
      the deck.
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   {To rake up}.
      (a) To collect together, as the fire (live coals), and
          cover with ashes.
      (b) To bring up; to search out and bring to notice again;
          as, to rake up old scandals.
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Raking \Rak"ing\ (r[=a]k"[i^]ng), n.
   1. The act or process of using a rake; the going over a space
      with a rake.
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   2. A space gone over with a rake; also, the work done, or the
      quantity of hay, grain, etc., collected, by going once
      over a space with a rake.
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muckrake \muck"rake`\ (m[u^]k"r[=a]k`), v. i. [imp. & p. p.
   {-raked}; p. pr. & vb. n. {-raking}.]
   To seek for, expose, or charge, especially habitually,
   corruption, real or alleged, on the part of public men and
   corporations.

   Note: On April 14, 1906, President Roosevelt delivered a
         speech on "The Man with the Muck Rake," in which he
         deprecated sweeping and unjust charges of corruption
         against public men and corporations. The phrase was
         taken up by the press, and the verb to {muckrake}, in
         the above sense, and the noun muckraker, to designate
         one so engaged, were speedily coined and obtained wide
         currency. The original allusion was to a character in
         Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" so intent on raking up
         muck that he could not see a celestial crown held above
         him.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl.]