raffles

¹

[raf-uhlz]

noun

(often initial capital letter)

1. a gentlemanly burglar, amateur housebreaker, or the like.

Raffles

²

[raf-uhlz]

noun

1. Sir Thomas Stamford, 1781–1826, English colonial administrator in the East Indies.

Raffles

/ ˈræfəlz /

noun

1. Sir Thomas Stamford . 1781–1826, British colonial administrator: founded Singapore (1819) as a station for the British East India Company

Word History and Origins

Origin of raffles¹

1925–30; after Raffles, hero of The Amateur Cracksman, by E. W. Hornung (1866–1921), English novelist

Example Sentences

Lohman-Janz created enamel pins and hosts raffles to encourage members to keep coming out.

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A stroll beneath palm trees through a serene park led to a statue of Sir Stamford Raffles on the spot where he planted the Union Jack in 1819, starting Singapore’s rise from a fishing village to a strategic port in the British Empire.

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The most popular colonial site is the Raffles Hotel, which was founded in 1887 and soon expanded to its current neo-Renaissance grandeur.

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Exiting Raffles onto the busy road, I noticed across the street the spire of a snow-white Gothic chapel with stained glass windows.

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I wandered past tiny stores still connected by covered “5-foot ways,” ordered by Gov. Raffles in his 1822 Town Plan so pedestrians could shop in the shade and out of monsoonal rains.

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