raunchy
[rawn-chee, rahn-]
- vulgar or smutty; crude; earthy; obscene: a raunchy joke.
- dirty; slovenly; grubby.
- lecherous.
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Origin of raunchy
An Americanism dating back to 1935–40; origin uncertain
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for raunchy
Contemporary Examples
It was fearless and raunchy and fun and ridiculous and weird and feminist and powerful.
Bow Down, Bitches: How Beyoncé Turned an Elevator Brawl Into a Perfect YearKevin Fallon
December 31, 2014
But she gave that all up to focus on her own art—her raunchy, thought-provoking rap lyrics.
Miley Cyrus morphed from cherub-faced Disney tween into raunchy twerker.
La Roux Discusses New Album ‘Trouble in Paradise,’ the 5-Year Gap, and Embracing Her AndrogynyMarlow Stern
July 6, 2014
And that, in the end, is why this great raucous, raunchy, wonderfully readable novel is, really, quite unforgettable.
Newsweek Takedown From Beyond the Grave: Michael Hastings’s Fiction Tells the TruthChristopher Dickey
June 18, 2014
The perfect amount of raunchy shock value to color a guffaw with a gasp.
raunchy
- openly sexual; lusty; earthy
- mainly US slovenly or untidy
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Word Origin
C20: of unknown origin
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
Word Origin and History for raunchy
adj.
1939, "clumsy, careless, sloppy," U.S. Army Air Corps slang, of unknown origin. Origins among cadets in Texas suggest possible connection to Mexican Spanish rancho (see ranch (n.)), which had connotations of animal filth by 1864. Sense of "coarse, vulgar, smutty" is from 1967. Related: Raunchiness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper