rathe
Americanadjective
adjective
-
blossoming or ripening early in the season
-
eager or prompt
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rathe
before 900; Middle English; Old English hræth, hræd quick, active; cognate with Dutch rad, Old Norse hrathr
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.
For swinging there on a rathe rose-tree, By the scented bay and barberry, Its petals gave all their sweet to me, As I passed by.
From Sea Poems by Rice, Cale Young
They quitte him out to rathe; 205 O nyce world, lo, thy discrecioun!
From Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer, Geoffrey
Of some rathe quickening, some divine Renascence not a sign!
From The Melody of Earth An Anthology of Garden and Nature Poems From Present-Day Poets by Various
Thou murmurest, too, divinely stirred, 110 The aspirations unattained, The rhythms so rathe and delicate, They bent and strained And broke, beneath the sombre weight Of any airiest mortal word.
From The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell by Lowell, James Russell
Drink is the dainty harvester; no puny ears for him, no faint and bending stalks: he reaps the rathe corn, and there is only the choicest of the choice in his sheaves.
From The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions Joints In Our Social Armour by Runciman, James
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.
