| raise hob | v. | raise hell | informal | |
| râle | n. | crackling sound heard in unhealthy lungs during auscultation | ||
| ramiform | adj. | shaped like a branch or branches | ||
| ramify | v. | to spread out in branches; to separate into subdivisions | ||
| ramp | v. | to swindle | slang | |
| rampallian | n. | vulgar person, wretch | ||
| rangdoodle | n. | round in a card game in which limits or antes are increased after a specified winning hand | ||
| rantipole | n. | rude disorderly youngster; rake, fop | ||
| rapscallion | n. | rogue, scamp | ||
| raptus | n. | seizure; ravishing, rape; medieval form of marriage by abduction | ||
| raree show | n. | peep show; spectacle | ||
| rarefy | v. | to make less dense | ||
| rataplan | n. | drumming or beating sound | ||
| ratio’d | v. | (said of tweet) having more comments than likes; having a comment with many more likes than original tweet | ||
| ratiocinate | v. | to reason logically | ||
| ravelin | n. | triangular outworks before main fortification, often providing additional protection to a gate or other strategic point | ||
| ravin | v. | to seek plunder or prey, to eat voraciously; act of plundering or seizing food | archaic | |
| raw-boned | adj. | gaunt, overly lean, having a bony physique | ||
| rax | v. | to stretch, to extend | ||
| reach-me-down | n. | readymade clothes | British | |
| rear-vassal | n. | vassal of a vassal, feudal tenant of one who held his own fief from a greater lord or the king | ||
| reata | n. | lariat, lasso | ||
| reave | v. | to rob, to plunder | ||
| rebarbative | adj. | repellent, annoying, unattractive | ||
| reboant | adj. | loudly booming or reverberating | ||
| rebozo | n. | long woven shawl worn over the head and shoulders of Spanish and Mexican women | ||
| recalcitrant | adj. | stubbornly defiant; refractory, unmanageable | ||
| recalitrate | v. | to ‘kick out’ against something, to resist, to show strong repugnance | ||
| recension | n. | revision, usually critical, of a literary work | ||
| recision | n. | act of cutting off; cancellation | ||
| recondite | adj. | abstruse, uncommonly profound; little known, obscure | ||
| recreant | n. | coward, craven; apostate, traitor | ||
| recrement | n. | dross, waste matter | ||
| recrudescence | n. | reappearance, renewed outbreak, reoccurrence (esp. of something morbid or bad) | ||
| recruit | v. | to refresh, to reinvigorate, to restore the health of | ||
| rectify | v. | to make right, to correct; to purify through repeated distillation; to change into direct current | ||
| rector | n. | clergyman with charge of a parish in Episcopal Church; priest in charge of college or seminary or similar in Roman Catholic Church; parish priest with full rights to the tithes of the parish in Anglican Church | ||
| red top | n. | tabloid newspaper, from the usual use of red banners atop the front page to highlight the name of the paper | ||
| redd | v. | to clean or tidy, to put in order, to clear | ||
| rede | n. | counsel, advice | ||
| redingote | n. | double-breasted topcoat for men; woman’s coat with cutaway skirts | ||
| reefer | n. | short-waisted close-fitting thick jacket; midshipman charged with reefing the sails | ||
| refection | n. | the partaking of refreshment | ||
| refectory | n. | dining hall in a college or religious house | ||
| refoulement | n. | forced repatriation or relocation of refugees to a country inimical to them | law | |
| refract | v. | to change by transmission or viewing through a medium | ||
| refractory | adj. | stubbornly disobedient | ||
| refrangible | adj. | capable of being refracted | ||
| refulgent | adj. | brightly shining | ||
| reify | v. | to make an abstract or mental thing more concrete or real |
