rake over

verb

To discuss something unpleasant from the past.

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Meanings

verbrake over (third-person singular simple present rakes over, present participle raking over, simple past and past participle raked over)

present singular third person rakes over · participle present raking over · participle past raked over · past raked over

  1. idiomaticTo discuss something unpleasant from the past.
    1 more example

    Tristam Darling [the narrator character] describes Florence by saying, among other things, "She had no bosom, a deficiency I always thought in a woman like a bed without a pillow."(!) Gordon [the author] rakes over every female character in the book in a similar way. No woman is treated positively without being abused.

    1979 April 28, Flame B. James, “Still Private”, in Gay Community News, page 14
Cite this entry
APA

rake over. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rake%20over

MLA

“rake over.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rake%20over. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rake over,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rake%20over.

Source: rake over on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.