raffle

What it means

1. A drawing, often held as a fundraiser, in which tickets or chances are sold to win a prize.

   He entered a raffle to win a lifetime supply of toothpaste, but he did not win.

   1 more example

   The raffle was a big success—too big, in fact.

   1953 August 6, Jet, volume 4, Johnson Publishing Company, page 22

2. obsoleteA game of dice in which the player who throws three of the same number wins all the stakes.
3. PhilippineslawThe system by which cases are assigned to judges in multi-sala courts.

In a sentence

He entered a raffle to win a lifetime supply of toothpaste, but he did not win.

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker-“to turn, bend”
2. Proto-Indo-European*(s)kreb(h)-
3. Proto-Germanic*hrapōną
4. Frankish*raffolōn
5. Old Frenchrafle
6. Middle Englishrafle
7. Englishraffle

From Middle English rafle, from Old French rafle, raffle (“dice game", also "plundering”), from rafler (“to snatch, seize, carry off”), from Frankish *raffolōn, from Proto-Germanic *hrapōną, *hrēpōną (“to scratch, touch, pluck out, snatch”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreb(h)-, *(s)kerb(h)- (“to turn, bend, shrink”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Middle Dutch raffel (“dice game”), German raffen (“to snatch away, sweep off”), Old English hreppan (“to touch, treat, attack”).