rawhide
Americannoun
-
untanned skin of cattle or other animals.
-
a rope or whip made of rawhide.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
untanned hide
-
a whip or rope made of strips cut from such a hide
Etymology
Origin of rawhide
Explanation
Rawhide is dried animal skin that hasn't been treated and turned into leather. Lampshades and drum heads are sometimes made from rawhide, and so are those leathery chews you give your dog to gnaw on. To turn an animal hide into something strong and pliant (like boot laces, upholstery, or shoes), it has to be tanned, processed with chemicals that strengthen the material. Rawhide, on the other hand, is raw, or "in its natural state." This means it's more delicate and generally less useful than finished leather. The fact that rawhide stretches and softens when wet makes it ideal for drum heads. Dogs love to chew on rawhide, though many vets discourage it.
Vocabulary lists containing rawhide
Wolf Brother
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Vocabulary from Readings 5, Unit 1
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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.
See Examples For:
Ziegler said he used the rawhide mallet to strike the gun, while the hammer was pulled back, from several directions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2024
In his early years on the court, Justice Thomas disclosed about 20 private plane flights and an assortment of other gifts, including cigars, a Daytona 500 jacket, a silver buckle and a rawhide coat.
From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2023
Metal ring bits adopted from the Spanish caused distinctive fractures in an animal’s teeth and palate; rawhide bridles developed by Native people wore telltale grooves in the lower jaw.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 29, 2023
The dog even had her own shelf, so each pit stop meant she got treats or a rawhide and, if it was her mealtime, kibble.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 23, 2021
When the young Dawn came bright into the East spreading her finger tips of rose, Telemakhos, the king’s son, tied on his rawhide sandals and took the lance that bore his handgrip.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
"Ollie" Burke kidded and rawhided them into battle shape, turned his engines at 31 knots, dressed each ship with a new in-signe: the "Little Beaver," a character from Artist Fred Harman's comic strip Red Ryder.
From Time Magazine Archive
For 15 minutes she rawhided the critic in German.
From Time Magazine Archive
Labor The two big-bodied, grim-faced men sat in their green-walled hotel suites in Washington and listened as the President rawhided them over the radio.
From Time Magazine Archive
Krug remained silent; he suffered Lewis's rawhiding without complaint.
From Time Magazine Archive
Seldom had a top-rank businessman given business such a rawhiding.
From Time Magazine Archive
But they also knew him as a rawhiding commander who knew no friends.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the evenings he brought work home and labored far into the night, frequently calling staff members in for consultation or for rawhiding rebuke.
From Time Magazine Archive
I was rawhiding myself to beat the everlasting band at the prospect of having to make this long, tiresome day jump alone, and it's done me a heap of good to talk you to frazzles.
From Branded by Lynde, Francis
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.
