rasp

American  

[rasp, rahsp] / ræsp, rɑsp /

verb (used with object)

• rasps,
  present (3rd person singular)
• rasped,
  past participle,  past
• rasping
  present participle

1. to scrape or abrade with a rough instrument.

2. to scrape or rub roughly.

   The glacier rasped the valley floor.

3. to grate upon or irritate.

   The sound rasped his nerves.

4. to utter with a grating sound.

   to rasp out an answer.

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verb (used without object)

• rasps,
  present (3rd person singular)
• rasped,
  past participle,  past
• rasping
  present participle

1. to scrape or grate.

2. to make a grating sound.

noun

• rasps
  plural

1. an act of rasping.

2. a rasping sound.

3. a coarse file, used mainly on wood, having separate conical teeth.

4. (in an insect) a roughened surface used in stridulation.

rasp ¹ British  

/ rɑːsp /

noun

1. a harsh grating noise

2. a coarse file with rows of raised teeth

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verb

1. (tr) to scrape or rub (something) roughly, esp with a rasp; abrade

2. to utter with or make a harsh grating noise

3. to irritate (one's nerves or senses); grate (upon)

rasp ² British  

/ rɑːsp /

noun

1. an informal or Scot word for raspberry

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• rasper
  noun
• raspish
  adjective
• unrasped
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• rasps
  plural

Participles

• rasping
  present
• rasped
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• rasp
  simple
• rasps
  simple
• have rasped
  perfect
• has rasped
  perfect
• am rasping
  progressive
• are rasping
  progressive
• is rasping
  progressive
• have been rasping
  perfect progressive
• has been rasping
  perfect progressive

Past

• rasped
  simple
• had rasped
  perfect
• was rasping
  progressive
• were rasping
  progressive
• had been rasping
  perfect progressive

Future

• will rasp
  simple
• will have rasped
  perfect
• will be rasping
  progressive
• will have been rasping
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of rasp

1200–50; Middle English raspen < Old French rasper to scrape, grate < Germanic; see rape ³

Explanation

When you rasp, you either file wood with a metal tool, or you speak in a harsh, irritating voice. Your rasp-y voice might get you a gig as a lounge singer, but probably not as a preschool teacher. The tool called a rasp is a special kind of wood file that's much coarser than sandpaper, and when you use it, you rasp. If you've ever cared for a horse's hooves, you may have also used a rasp to file them. The "speak gratingly" meaning of rasp comes from the "scraping" sense of the word. If your voice sounds like a rasp against a rough surface, you're rasping.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rasp rasps rasped rasping

It’s a light mist, then a transparent tone; a crude rasp, then soft and broken or boldly ringing and round, and often many of the above within a single song.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026

But dig deeper, and one will find that Tyler’s discography is brimming with hits that put her unmistakable rasp to thrilling use.

From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026

He puts on Lecter's metallic rasp for me and appears to enjoy repeating his character's words to Jodie Foster's Clarice.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2025

No. But he’s the symbol of Springsteen here, and he captures the star’s flinty gaze and rock ‘n’ roll rasp while performing the songs, bringing his own intense soulfulness to the role.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2025

There's a rasp to his voice that makes him sound tired but smart.

From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi

Elordi’s voice rasps with a powerful interior dialogue that narrates the latter part of the 149-minute movie.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2025

“I need to talk to you,” Biden rasps, then battling COVID-19.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2025

In the video, released on Monday, a clearly distressed Muonagor, rasps in the Igbo language: "Igbo people, I greet you all."

From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2024

Vocally, the division of labor is pretty straightforward: Paak rasps through his verses with unrelenting wink-wink, then Mars soars through the refrains.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 15, 2021

“Some secrets hide themselves away in the shadows like me,” Madeline rasps.

From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish

Hospitalized and on oxygen, Linderman cut a grainy video in which he rasped out “this is how bad it is,” then admitted he had made a catastrophic error by not getting vaccinated.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 8, 2021

The visitors did not threaten until the 26th minute, when John McGinn ran on to a pass by Jack Grealish and rasped a shot wide from 10 yards under pressure from James Justin.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 18, 2020

Jackson, perhaps unable to leave her character's acrimony at the stage door, foiled my attempts to understand how she made sense of A's changing relationship to B and C. "What relationship?" she rasped.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2018

Howard Cosell rasped it reverently and those sweet scientists were star attractions on talk show couches alongside Jack Paar and Johnny Carson.

From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2016

Beyond the open door the dead grass rasped dryly in the wind.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Foden's goal - a rasping a low effort into the bottom corner following fine work by team-mate Rayan Cherki - will have impressed the watching Tuchel at Selhurst Park.

From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2025

But the home side equalised on the stroke of half-time courtesy of a rasping long-range drive from Vitinha following a short corner routine.

From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025

Collecting a pass from Reece James, Estevao cut inside, turned Alejandro Balde inside out and then sent a rasping drive into the roof of the net past goalkeeper Joan Garcia.

From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2025

What endures is the rasping byplay, the soaring exasperation, the tango of opposing temperaments finding fleeting common ground.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2024

A radio with a faulty connection played loud and rasping for a while, then suddenly quiet and insinuating.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles