Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

rake-off

American  
[reyk-awf, -of] / ˈreɪkˌɔf, -ˌɒf /

noun

  1. a share or amount taken or received illicitly, as in connection with a public enterprise.

  2. a share, as of profits.

  3. a discount in the price of a commodity.

    We got a 20 percent rake-off on the dishwasher.
rake-off British  

noun

  1. a share of profits, esp one that is illegal or given as a bribe

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr, adverb) to take or receive (such a share of profits)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
rake off Idioms  

  1. Make an unlawful profit, as in They suspected her of raking off some of the campaign contributions for her personal use. This expression alludes to the raking of chips by an attendant at a gambling table. [Late 1800s]

Etymology

Origin of rake-off

1885–90, noun use of verb phrase rake off

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.

But the men with no fingerprints won’t permit it, those athletic directors and presidents who have subverted college athletics into a rake-off while pretending to govern them.

From Washington Post • Feb. 21, 2019

The gamblers from Genoa stopped paying their rake-off to the government.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the days when there were as many as 25 ships in the harbor, the capataces' rake-off amounted to $25,000 a week.

From Time Magazine Archive

Theatre treasurers, as well as a number of managers, receive from the agencies a rake-off of anywhere from 25� to $2 a ticket for preferred locations.

From Time Magazine Archive

That last time in Port Said, when the police rushed into his cabin not five minutes after the laundryman, who also took his rake-off, had carried the stuff ashore in a boat-load of dirty sheets.

From Command by McFee, William

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.