Ranunculus (rȧ*nŭn"ku*lŭs) noun ; plural English Ranunculuses (- ĕz), Latin Ranunculi (-lī). [ Latin , a little frog, a medicinal plant, perhaps crowfoot, dim. of rana a frog; confer raccare to roar.] (Botany) A genus of herbs, mostly with yellow flowers, including crowfoot, buttercups, and the cultivated ranunculi ( R. Asiaticus , R. aconitifolius , etc.) in which the flowers are double and of various colors.

Ranz des vaches (räNs" da` vȧsh"). [ French, the ranks or rows of cows, the name being given from the fact that the cattle, when answering the musical call of their keeper, move towards him in a row, preceded by those wearing bells.] The name for numerous simple, but very irregular, melodies of the Swiss mountaineers, blown on a long tube called the Alpine horn , and sometimes sung.

Rap (răp) noun [ Etymol. uncertain.] A lay or skein containing 120 yards of yarn. Knight.

Rap intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Rapped (răpt); present participle & verbal noun Rapping .] [ Akin to Swedish rappa to strike, rapp stroke, Danish rap , perhaps of imitative origin.] To strike with a quick, sharp blow; to knock; as, to rap on the door.

Rap transitive verb
1. To strike with a quick blow; to knock on.

With one great peal they rap the door.

Prior.

2. (Founding) To free (a pattern) in a mold by light blows on the pattern, so as to facilitate its removal.

Rap noun A quick, smart blow; a knock.

Rap transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Rapped (răpt), usually written Rapt ; present participle & verbal noun Rapping .] [ Middle English rapen ; akin to LG. & Dutch rapen to snatch, German raffen , Swedish rappa ; confer Danish rappe sig to make haste, and Icelandic hrapa to fall, to rush, hurry. The word has been confused with Latin rapere to seize. Confer Rape robbery, Rapture , Raff , v. , Ramp , v. ]
1. To snatch away; to seize and hurry off.

And through the Greeks and Ilians they rapt
The whirring chariot.

Chapman.

From Oxford I was rapt by my nephew, Sir Edmund Bacon, to Redgrove.

Sir H. Wotton.

2. To hasten. [ Obsolete] Piers Plowman.

3. To seize and bear away, as the mind or thoughts; to transport out of one's self; to affect with ecstasy or rapture; as, rapt into admiration.

I 'm rapt with joy to see my Marcia's tears.

Addison.

Rapt into future times, the bard begun.

Pope.

4. To exchange; to truck. [ Obsolete & Low]

To rap and ren , To rap and rend . [ Perhaps from Icelandic hrapa to hurry and ræna plunder, from rān plunder, English ran .] To seize and plunder; to snatch by violence. Dryden. "[ Ye] waste all that ye may rape and renne ." Chaucer.

All they could rap and rend and pilfer.

Hudibras.

-- To rap out , to utter with sudden violence, as an oath.

A judge who rapped out a great oath.

Addison.

Rap noun [ Perhaps contr. from raparee .] A popular name for any of the tokens that passed current for a half-penny in Ireland in the early part of the eighteenth century; any coin of trifling value.

Many counterfeits passed about under the name of raps .

Swift.

Tie it [ her money] up so tight that you can't touch a rap , save with her consent.

Mrs. Alexander.

Not to care a rap , to care nothing. -- Not worth a rap , worth nothing.

Rapaces (rȧ*pā"sēz) noun plural [ New Latin See Rapacious .] (Zoology) Same as Accipitres .

Rapacious (-shŭs) adjective [ Latin rapax , -acis , from rapere to seize and carry off, to snatch away. See Rapid .]

1. Given to plunder; disposed or accustomed to seize by violence; seizing by force. " The downfall of the rapacious and licentious Knights Templar." Motley.

2. Accustomed to seize food; subsisting on prey, or animals seized by violence; as, a tiger is a rapacious animal; a rapacious bird.

3. Avaricious; grasping; extortionate; also, greedy; ravenous; voracious; as, rapacious usurers; a rapacious appetite.

[ Thy Lord] redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious claim

Milton.

Syn. -- Greedy; grasping; ravenous; voracious.

-- Ra*pa"cious*ly , adverb -- Ra*pa"cious*ness , noun

Rapacity (rȧ*păs"ĭ*tȳ) noun [ Latin rapacitas : confer French rapacité . See Rapacious .]
1. The quality of being rapacious; rapaciousness; ravenousness; as, the rapacity of pirates; the rapacity of wolves.

2. The act or practice of extorting or exacting by oppressive injustice; exorbitant greediness of gain. "The rapacity of some ages." Sprat.

Raparee (răp`ȧ*rē") noun See Rapparee .

Rape (rāp) noun [ French râpe a grape stalk.]
1. Fruit, as grapes, plucked from the cluster. Ray.

2. The refuse stems and skins of grapes or raisins from which the must has been expressed in wine making.

3. A filter containing the above refuse, used in clarifying and perfecting malt, vinegar, etc.

Rape wine , a poor, thin wine made from the last dregs of pressed grapes.

Rape noun [ Akin to rap to snatch, but confused with Latin rapere . See Rap to snatch.]
1. The act of seizing and carrying away by force; violent seizure; robbery.

And ruined orphans of thy rapes complain.

Sandys.

2. (Law) Sexual connection with a woman without her consent. See Age of consent , under Consent , noun

3. That which is snatched away. [ Obsolete]

Where now are all my hopes? O, never more
Shall they revive! nor death her rapes restore.

Sandys.

4. Movement, as in snatching; haste; hurry. [ Obsolete]

Rape transitive verb To commit rape upon; to ravish.

To rape and ren . See under Rap , transitive verb , to snatch.

Rape intransitive verb To rob; to pillage. [ Obsolete] Heywood.

Rape noun [ Icelandic hreppr village, district; confer Icelandic hreppa to catch, obtain, Anglo-Saxon hrepian , hreppan , to touch.] One of six divisions of the county of Sussex, England, intermediate between a hundred and a shire.

Rape noun [ Latin rapa , rapum , akin to Greek "ra`pys , "ra`fys , German rübe .] (Botany) A name given to a variety or to varieties of a plant of the turnip kind, grown for seeds and herbage. The seeds are used for the production of rape oil, and to a limited extent for the food of cage birds.

» These plants, with the edible turnip, have been variously named, but are all now believed to be derived from the Brassica campestris of Europe, which by some is not considered distinct from the wild stock ( B. oleracea ) of the cabbage. See Cole .

Broom rape . (Botany) See Broom rape , in the Vocabulary. -- Rape cake , the refuse remaining after the oil has been expressed from the rape seed. -- Rape root . Same as Rape . -- Summer rape . (Botany) See Colza .

Rapeful (rāp"ful) adjective
1. Violent. [ Obsolete]

2. Given to the commission of rape. Byron.

Rapfully (răp"ful*lȳ) adverb Violently. [ Obsolete]

Raphaelesque (răf`ȧ*ĕl*ĕsk") adjective Like Raphael's works; in Raphael's manner of painting.

Raphaelism (răf"ȧ*ĕl*ĭz'm) noun The principles of painting introduced by Raphael, the Italian painter.

Raphaelite (-īt) noun One who advocates or adopts the principles of Raphaelism.

Raphany (răf"ȧ*nȳ) noun [ Confer French raphanie .] (Medicine) A convulsive disease, attended with ravenous hunger, not uncommon in Sweden and Germany. It was so called because supposed to be caused by eating corn with which seeds of jointed charlock ( Raphanus raphanistrum ) had been mixed, but the condition is now known to be a form of ergotism.

Raphe (rā"fe) noun [ New Latin , from Greek "rafh` a seam or suture, from "ra`ptein to sew or stitch together.]
1. (Anat.) A line, ridge, furrow, or band of fibers, especially in the median line; as, the raphe of the tongue.

2. (Botany) Same as Rhaphe .

Raphides (răf"ĭ*dēz) noun plural [ French raphide .] (Botany) See Rhaphides .

Rapid (răp"ĭd) adjective [ Latin rapidus , from rapere to seize and carry off, to snatch or hurry away; perhaps akin to Greek 'arpa`zein : confer French rapide . Confer Harpy , Ravish .]

1. Very swift or quick; moving with celerity; fast; as, a rapid stream; a rapid flight; a rapid motion.

Ascend my chariot; guide the rapid wheels.

Milton.

2. Advancing with haste or speed; speedy in progression; in quick sequence; as, rapid growth; rapid improvement; rapid recurrence; rapid succession.

3. Quick in execution; as, a rapid penman.

Rapid noun [ Confer French rapide . See Rapid , adjective ] The part of a river where the current moves with great swiftness, but without actual waterfall or cascade; -- usually in the plural; as, the Lachine rapids in the St. Lawrence.

Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near, and the daylight's past.

Moore.

Rapid-fire mount (Ordnance) A mount permitting easy and quick elevation or depression and training of the gun, and fitting with a device for taking up the recoil.

Rapid-fire, Rapid-firing adjective (a) (Gun.) Firing shots in rapid succession. (b) (Ordnance) Capable of being fired rapidly; -- applied to single-barreled guns of greater caliber than small arms, mounted so as to be quickly trained and elevated, with a quick-acting breech mechanism operated by a single motion of a crank or lever (abbr. R. F. ); specif.: (1) In the United States navy, designating such a gun using fixed ammunition or metallic cartridge cases; -- distinguished from breech-loading (abbr. B. Latin ), applied to all guns loading with the charge in bags, and formerly from quick-fire . Rapid-fire guns in the navy also sometimes include automatic or semiautomatic rapid-fire guns; the former being automatic guns of not less than one inch caliber, firing a shell of not less than one pound weight, the explosion of each cartridge operating the mechanism for ejecting the empty shell, loading, and firing the next shot, the latter being guns that require one operation of the hand at each discharge, to load the gun. (2) In the United States army, designating such a gun, whether using fixed or separate ammunition, designed chiefly for use in coast batteries against torpedo vessels and the lightly armored batteries or other war vessels and for the protection of defensive mine fields; -- not distinguished from quick-fire . (3) In Great Britain and Europe used, rarely, as synonymous with quick-fire .

Rapidity (rȧ*pĭd"ĭ*tȳ) noun [ Latin rapiditas : confer French rapidité .] The quality or state of being rapid; swiftness; celerity; velocity; as, the rapidity of a current; rapidity of speech; rapidity of growth or improvement.

Syn. -- Rapidness; haste; speed; celerity; velocity; swiftness; fleetness; quickness; agility.

Rapidly (răp"ĭd*lȳ) adverb In a rapid manner.

Rapidness noun Quality of being rapid; rapidity.

Rapier (rā"pĭ*ẽr) noun [ French rapière , perhaps for raspière , and ultimately of German origin, akin to English rasp , v.] A straight sword, with a narrow and finely pointed blade, used only for thrusting.

Rapier fish (Zoology) , the swordfish. [ Obsolete] Grew.

Rapiered (-ẽrd) adjective Wearing a rapier. "Scarletcoated, rapiered figures." Lowell.

Rapilli (rȧ*pĭl"le) noun plural [ Italian ] (Min.) Lapilli.

Rapine (răp"ĭn) noun [ French rapine ; confer Pr. & Italian rapina ; all from Latin rapina , from rapere to seize and carry off by force. See Rapid , and confer Raven rapine.]
1. The act of plundering; the seizing and carrying away of things by force; spoliation; pillage; plunder.

Men who were impelled to war quite as much by the desire of rapine as by the desire of glory.

Macaulay.

2. Ravishment; rape. [ Obsolete] Shak.

Rapine transitive verb To plunder. Sir G. Buck.

Rapinous (răp"ĭ*nŭs) adjective Given to rapine. [ Obsolete]

Rappage (-paj; 48) noun (Founding) The enlargement of a mold caused by rapping the pattern.

Rapparee (-pȧ*rē") noun A wild Irish plunderer, esp. one of the 17th century; -- so called from his carrying a half-pike, called a rapary . [ Written also raparee .]

Rapped (răpt), imperfect & past participle of Rap , to strike.

Rapped imperfect & past participle of Rap , to snatch away.

Rappee (răp*pē") noun [ French râpé , from râper to grate, to rasp. See Rasp , v. ] A pungent kind of snuff made from the darker and ranker kinds of tobacco leaves.

Rappel (răp"pĕl or răp*pĕl") noun [ French Confer Repeal .] (Mil.) The beat of the drum to call soldiers to arms.

Rapper (răp"pẽr) noun [ From Rap .]
1. One who, or that which, raps or knocks; specifically, the knocker of a door. Sterne.

2. A forcible oath or lie. [ Slang] Bp. Parker.

Rapport (răp*pōrt"; F. rȧ`pôr") noun [ French, from rapporter to bring again or back, to refer; prefix re- re- + apporter to bring, Latin apportare . Confer Report .] Relation; proportion; conformity; correspondence; accord.

'T is obvious what rapport there is between the conceptions and languages in every country.

Sir W. Temple.