RAFFISH Synonyms: 77 Similar and Opposite Words

raffish

adjective

ˈra-fish

Definition of raffish

as in crass

lacking in refinement or good taste the dowager cringed at the thought of raffish tourists in rough boots tromping all over her Persian rugs

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of raffish Three or four decades ago, the newspaperman was appealingly raffish—at once a bum who drank too much and a knight-errant who charged unafraid at social injustice, succored the weak, and crossed lances with the powerful and arrogant. — David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025 A little lowly courier work, yes, but nothing more raffish than that. — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025 The banal village tunes that Mahler altered into sinister mock vulgarities—did these not recall the raffish klezmer bands, the wandering musicians who played at shtetl weddings? — David Denby, The Atlantic, 1 Apr. 2025 There’s an over-the-top and overdressed fish out of water (me), a raffish Englishmen homesick for Great Britain (my husband Aidan, who will be mortified to read any of this), and an ensemble of quirky characters. — Mosha Lundström Halbert, Vogue, 20 Dec. 2024 See All Example Sentences for raffish

Recent Examples of Synonyms for raffish

Adjective

But the fashionable-at-the-time nakedness of the YBAs’ desire for money, most completely embodied by Hirst, quickly became crass.

— Eliza Goodpasture, ARTnews.com, 5 Oct. 2026
Murdoch is thick-skinned and accustomed to being underestimated by the condescending Brits, who see him as a crass interloper.

— David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 2 Sep. 2026

Definition of crass

Adjective

Continue reading … SOUR NOTE — Hayley Williams unleashes vulgar insult at DHS after agency defends ICE officers.

— , FOXNews.com, 12 Oct. 2026
This has made some machine translations comically inaccurate, sometimes turning innocuous words into vulgar references in English.

— Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of vulgar

Adjective

Were my siblings rude to ignore my plan and take them for themselves?

— Judith Martin, Sun Sentinel, 14 Oct. 2026
An alligator with a sense of humor knocked on a North Carolina woman’s front door in the middle of the night, and the rascal got a rather rude response.

— Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 12 Oct. 2026

Definition of rude

Adjective

The researchers grew the common research plant Arabidopsis thaliana in containers, some of which were dotted with patches of rotting apple.

— Joanna Thompson, Scientific American, 17 Oct. 2026
CoreMotion is intended to address this integration challenge by providing a common control layer between autonomy software and vehicle hardware.

— Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 17 Oct. 2026

Definition of common

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radius

raffish

raffishness

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“Raffish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/raffish. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of raffish

adjective

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