01 a. Resembling, or having the character of, raff, or a raff; worthless; low.
-
1.
Resembling, or having the character of, raff, or a raff; worthless; low.“A sad, raffish, disreputable character.” — Thackeray.
-
2.
Mildly disreputable; disregarding conventional morality; charmingly dissolute{3} or nonconformist.“Tales of his [Ted Kennedy's] drinking and raffish behavior have become part of his public persona, often lumped under a vaster damnation known as “the character issue”.” — Rick Atkinson, Washington Post, Sept. 29, 1990
-
3.
Dissolute; rakish.“Of all such places, Santa Fe may well be the least raffish. At least in the off-season, it's a town that goes to bed early, showing all the prudent reserve of a city of bankers and claims adjusters. In the historic center, a visitor searches in vain for tawdry traces of the hard-drinking, wild-womanizing, heavy-gambling cowboy town this once must have been.” — Brad Leithauser (“Santa Fe”, in New York Times Magazine / May 13, 2001).“Over the years, it [Macau] has maintained a downright raffish atmosphere, complete with warring gangsters.” — Yvette Ziols.
-
4.
Vulgarly gaudy; cheap and tawdry; as, a tendency toward gaudy jewelry, bright colors and generally raffish dress.
-
5.
Appealing to or frequented by dissolute or disreputable people; as, a raffish night club.