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
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
Or if the buckskin has been washed for five days in a row, it turns into rawhide.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2022
Vertical sculptures hanging from the ceiling or suspended like flayed skins on the wall are made of chain mail with sharp hooks, rawhide and small burning candles attached to them.
From New York Times ● Oct. 9, 2019
He tossed them some slimy rawhide chews to keep them busy.
From "Dog Squad" by Chris Grabenstein
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
For 15 minutes she rawhided the critic in German.
From Time Magazine Archive
"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
Krug remained silent; he suffered Lewis's rawhiding without complaint.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then, in a flood of intemperate language unmatched since his rawhiding of the striking railroad workers in 1946,* the President launched into an angry dressing-down of the whole steel industry.
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
Seldom had a top-rank businessman given business such a rawhiding.
From Time Magazine Archive
But I was glad, sometimes, when he was rawhiding us into shape, that Magnus Thorkelson was drilling with a wooden gun.
From Vandemark's Folly by Herbert Quick
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
