raquet

See racket2. raquette (ra-ket'), n. [F.] A racket.-Raquette head-dre , a kind of head-dre in use toward the close of the sixteenth century, in which the hair is drawn back from the forehead and temples, and raised in a sort of crest; a kind of chignon was arranged at the back of the head and covered by a cap of fine linen, darned net embroidery, or some similar material. rara (rä'rä), п. [S. Amer.; imitative of its cry.] A bird, the South American plant-cutter, Phytotoma rara. Also called rarita. See cut under Phytotoma. rara avis (rā'rä a'vis); pl. raræ aves (rā'rē ā'vēz). [L., in full rara avis in terris, 'a rare bird on earth'-a phrase applied by Horace (Sat. ii. 2, 26) to the peacock: rara, fem. of rarus, rare, uncommon; avis, bird: see rarel and Aves.] A rare bird; hence, a person or an object of a rare kind or character; a prodigy. rarel (rar), a. [ The fiend O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare , With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way. Milton , P. L., ii. 948. Water is nineteen times lighter, and by consequence nineteen times, rarer than gold. Newton , Opticks, II. iii. 8. 2. Thinly scattered; coming or occurring at wide intervals; sparse; dispersed. Cucumber in this moone is sowen rare. Palladius , Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 110. The cattle in the fields and meadows green: Those rare and solitary, these in flocks Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung. Milton, P. L., vii. 461. He left the barren-beaten thoroughfare, Chose the green path that show'd the rarer foot. Tennyson , Lance lot and Elaine. 3. Very uncommon or infrequent; seldom occurring or to be found; hardly ever met with. She calls me proud, and that she could not love me Were man as rare as phœnix. Shak., As you Like it, iv. 3. 17. It is the rarest thing that ever I saw in any place, neyther do I thinke that any citie of Christen do me hath the like. Coryat, Crudities, I. 192. When so many have written too much, we shall the more readily pardon the rare man who has written too little or just enough. Lowell, New Princeton Rev., I. 161. Hence-4. Remarkable from uncommonne ; especially, uncommonly good, excellent, valuable, fine, or the like; of an excellence seldom met with, rare Good discent, rare features, vertuous partes. Times ' Whistle (E. E. T. S.), p. 43. I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. Shak ., Sonnets, cxxx. They write to me from England of rare News in France. Howell , Letters, I. vi. 37. Ha! ha! ha! yes, yes, I think it a rare joke. Sheridan , School for Scandal, iii. 3. She's a rare hand at sausages; there's noane like her in a' the three Ridings. Mrs. Gaskell , Sylvia's Lovers, viii. = Syn. 3. Rare, Scarce, infrequent, unusual. Rare implies that only few of the kind exist: as, perfect diamonds are rare. Scarce properly implies a previous or usual condition of greater abundance. Rare means that there are much fewer of a kind to be found than may be found where scarce would apply. A perfect union of wit and judgment is one of the rarest things in the world. Burke . Where words are scarce , they are seldom spent in vain. 4964 porous, or le dense; expand or enlarge without adding any new matter; figurative er; figuratively, to spread yond credit. or stretch out; distend: opposed to condense . Presently the water, very much rarified like a mist, be- gan to rise. Court and Times of Charles I. , I. 113. For plain truths lose much of their weight when they are rarify'd into sub till i ties. Stilling fleet , Sermons, I. iv. A body is commonly said to be rarefied or dilated (for I take the word in a larger sense than I know many others when it acquires greater dimensions than the do) same body had before. Boyle , Works, I. 144. Rarefying osteitis, an osteitis in which the Havers i an canals become enlarged and the bone rarefied. Also called osteoporosis . Earth rarefies to dew; expanded more, The subtil dew in air begins to soar. Dryden. Then touch'd upon the game, how scarce it was This season. Tennyson, Audley Court. 4. Singular, extraordinary, incomparable, choice. rare2 (rar), a. [A dial. form of rear2, q. v.] Not thoroughly cooked; partly cooked; underdone: applied to meat: as, rare beef; a rare chop. [In common use in the United States, but now only dialectal in Great Britain.] New-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care Turned by a gentle fire, and roasted rare. Dryden, tr. of Ovid's Meta morph., viii. 98. Scanty mutton serags on Fridays, and rather more savoury, but grudging, portions of the same flesh, rotten roasted or rare , on the Tuesdays. Lamb , Christ's Hospital. The word rare , applied to meat not cooked enough, did sound really strange to me; but an eminent citizen of yours presently showed me that it had for it the authority E. A. Freeman , Amer. Lects., p. 69. of Dryden. rare3 (rar), adv. [Also rear; prob. a reduction of rather (with sense of the positive rath ): see rather, rath, adv. Cf. rareripe for rathripe.] Early. [Prov. Eng.] rare (rar), v. A dialectal form of rear1. [U.S.] aret raret, v. An obsolete form of roar.