muckrake
Americanverb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
- muckraker noun
- muckraking noun
Etymology
Origin of muckrake
First recorded in 1675–85; obsolete muck rake “a rake for piling up muck or dung.” The modern sense was first recorded in 1850–55. See muck, rake 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She wasn’t there to muckrake but to grasp what happens when the object of laboratory study is not a molecule or a rat but a human being.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 29, 2018
And it’s not just foreign operatives that we must beware of - deep-pocketed special interests here can muckrake online with little or no accountability, too.
From Washington Times • May 9, 2018
At the 1906 Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with "the muckrake in his hand."
From US News • Mar. 17, 2015
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with “the muckrake in his hand” in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington.
From Washington Post • Mar. 17, 2011
How can you muckrake a gallery like that?
From Abroad at Home American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian Street by Street, Julian
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
