rake up
verb
Simple meaning
To bring up or uncover, as embarrassing information, past misdeeds.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
raykuhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹeɪˈkʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
ambitransitivefigurative
To bring up or uncover (something), as embarrassing information, past misdeeds, etc.
ambitransitivefigurative
Bring to light
“He raked up the misdeeds of his predecessor.”
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rake.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (ambitransitive, figurative) To bring up or uncover (something), as embarrassing information, past misdeeds, etc.
Used this way, rake up is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.