raft, rafte

[Icel. raftr =a rafter; Dan. raft designs were painted by Raffaelle (1483-1520). Mara rafter (q. v.).) ryatt has shown that this is improbable, but that the designs were furnished from original drawings by Raffaelle. The designs of this ware are scenes from ancient mythology, or other fancy subjects, or portraits painted in natural colors. raf-fin-ōse, s . [Fr. raffiner =to refine, as sugar, .; -ose ( Chem . ).] Chemistry: C18H32016+5H2O. A saccharine body found in the mola es of the beet, and recently discovered by O'Sullivan in barley. It crystallizes in colorle , flat, oblique prisms, very soluble in water, sparingly in alcohol. It has a faint sweet taste, is unfermentable, but capable of transformation by boiling with dilute mineral acids into two sugars, one of which is dextrose. raf-fish, a. [Eng. raff, s.; -ish.] Resembling or characteristic of the raff or rabble; scampish, worthle , villainous, low. "We had imagined it was still the raffish haunt of uproarious planters, and white men of the lowest type." -Good Words, Sept., 1881, p. 602.