Skip navigation.

rave - What does it mean?

Definition of 'rave'

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) raver, variant of resver, of uncertain origin.

Noun

(en-noun)
  • An enthusiastic review (such as of a play).
  • An all-night dance party filled with electronic dance music (techno, trance, drum and bass etc.) and possibly drug use.
  • (uncountable) The genre of electronic dance music associated with rave parties.
  • * 2009 , Chrysalis Experiential Academy, Mind Harvesting (page 109)
  • Maybe I wear baggies / And white socks with flip-flops / Maybe I don't like listening to rave / And I'm not on the social mountaintops

    Verb

    (rav)
  • To wander in mind or intellect; to be delirious; to talk or act irrationally; to be wild, furious, or raging.
  • * Addison
  • Have I not cause to rave and beat my breast?
  • * Macaulay
  • The mingled torrent of redcoats and tartans went raving down the valley to the gorge of Killiecrankie.
  • To speak or write wildly or incoherently.
  • * 1748 , David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding , Section 3. ยง 5.
  • A production without design would resemble more the ravings of a madman, than the sober efforts of genius and learning.
  • To talk with unreasonable enthusiasm or excessive passion or excitement; followed by about'', ''of'', or (formerly) ''on .
  • He raved about her beauty.
  • * Byron
  • The hallowed scene / Which others rave on, though they know it not.
  • (obsolete) To rush wildly or furiously.
  • (Spenser)
  • To attend a rave (dance party).
  • See also

    * rant

    Etymology 2

    English dialect raves, or .

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • One of the upper side pieces of the frame of a wagon body or a sleigh.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    * ----