Skip navigation.

raw - What does it mean?

Definition of 'raw'

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Of food: not cooked.
  • Not treated or processed (of materials, products etc.); in a natural state, unrefined, unprocessed.
  • Having had the skin removed or abraded; chafed, tender; exposed, lacerated.
  • *{{quote-book|year=1963|author=(Margery Allingham)|title=(The China Governess)
  • |chapter=7 citation |passage=‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw . Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’}}
  • New or inexperienced.
  • Crude in quality; rough, uneven, unsophisticated.
  • Of data, statistics etc: uncorrected, without analysis.
  • * 2010 , "Under the volcano", (The Economist), 16 Oct 2010:
  • What makes Mexico worrying is not just the raw numbers but the power of the cartels over society.
  • Of weather: unpleasantly damp or cold.
  • a raw wind
  • * Shakespeare
  • a raw and gusty day
  • (obsolete) Not covered; bare; bald.
  • * Spenser
  • with scull all raw

    Synonyms

    * See also * (without a condom)

    Derived terms

    * (l)

    Adverb

    (head)
  • (slang) Without a condom.
  • Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (sugar refining|sugar trade) An unprocessed sugar; a batch of such.
  • * 1800 , Louisiana Sugar Planters' Association, Lousiana Sugar Chemists' Association, American Cane Growers' Association, The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer , Volume 22, page 287,
  • With the recent advance in London yellow crystals, however, the disproportion of the relative value of these two kinds has been considerably reduced, and a better demand for crystallized raws should consequently occur.
  • * 1921 , , The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry , Volume 13, Part 1, page 149,
  • Early in the year the raws were melted to about 20 Brix in order to facilitate filtration.
  • * 1939 , The Commercial and Financial Chronicle , Volume 148, Part 2, page 2924,
  • The world sugar contract closed 1 to 3 points net higher, with sales of only 36 lots. London raws sold at 8s. 4½d., and futures there were unchanged to 3d. higher.

    Anagrams

    * *

    Similar to 'raw'

    row, rew