a share or amount taken or received illicitly, as in connection with a public enterprise.
a share, as of profits.
a discount in the price of a commodity.
We got a 20 percent rake-off on the dishwasher.
1885–90, noun use of verb phrase rake off
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
The charge: Abdulgani was involved in a $130,000 rake-off from the firms that printed the 43 million ballots for last year's Indonesian elections.
From Time Magazine Archive
Whatever Burke done, it was Mann behind him; and when Burke got a rake-off of a thousand, Mann got two.
From A Woman for Mayor A Novel of To-day by Winslow, Helen M. (Helen Maria)
Their strategy for the next generation of personal technology is to control the ecosystem at every level, and to rake off a piece of all the financial transactions taking place there.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2010
He's trying to expose politicians who rake off the profits, and he recently unearthed three whistle-blowers who claim that Arroyo's husband, son and brother-in-law are involved.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I've won a thousand dollars on Lauzanne—" "Come on, pard," said Old Bill, impatiently interrupting them, "let's get our rake off, an' den you kin buck to yer chum after."
From Thoroughbreds by Fraser, William Alexander
Cut down the brown grass and rake off all the weeds and rubbish, and finish by putting on a dressing of seaweed, or half-rotten stable manure.
From The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots 16th Edition by Sutton and Sons
In the spring rake off the mulch, and as early as possible fork the ground over lightly, taking pains not to touch or wound the crowns of the plants.
From The Home Acre by Roe, Edward Payson
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.
