raw

comparative rawer · superlative rawest

1. cooking(of food) Not cooked.First known use 9th c.

   He ate raw beef for dinner.

   2 more examples

   There's nothing but raw fish in the freezer.

   A flying fish is excellent to eat raw and I would not have to cut him up.

   1952 September 1, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 66

   1. cookingSubsisting on, or pertaining to, a diet of raw food.

      I was 100% raw from 2014 until early 2018.

2. Not treated or processed; in a natural state, unrefined, unprocessed. (of materials, products, etc.)First known use 10th c.

   raw sewage

   2 more examples

   Volatiles of kecap manis and its raw materials were extracted using Likens-Nickerson apparatus with diethyl ether as the extraction solvent. The extracts were then dried with anhydrous sodium sulfate, concentrated using a rotary evaporator followed by flushing using nitrogen until the volume was about 0.5 ml.

   1997, A. J. Taylor, D. S. Mothram, editors, Flavour Science: Recent Developments, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 63

   raw cane sugar

3. Having had the skin removed or abraded; chafed, tender; exposed, lacerated.First known use 14th c.

   a raw wound

   1 more example

   ‘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.[…]’

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

4. New or inexperienced.First known use 16th c.

   a raw beginner

5. Crude in quality; rough, uneven, unsophisticated.First known use 16th c.

   a raw voice

6. mathematicsUncorrected, without analysis.First known use 20th c.

   What makes Mexico worrying is not just the raw numbers but the power of the cartels over society.

   2010, "Under the volcano", The Economist, 16 Oct 2010

7. Unpleasantly cold or damp. (of weather)

   a raw wind

   3 more examples

   a raw and gusty day

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   […] I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, […]

   1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter I, in Jane Eyre. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 1

   He made Yossarian think of cripples and of cold and hungry men and women, and of all the dumb, passive, devout mothers with catatonic eyes nursing infants outdoors that same night with chilled animal udders bared insensibly to that same raw rain.

   1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 428

8. Unmasked, undisguised, strongly expressed. (of an emotion, personality, etc.)

   raw emotion

9. Candid in a representation of unpleasant facts, conditions, etc.

   a raw description of the American political arena

10. Unrefined, crude, or insensitive, especially with reference to sexual matters. (of language)
11. slanglifestyleWithout a condom.

    raw sex

12. obsoleteNot covered; bare; bald.

    with scull all raw

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 11

1. slanglifestyleWithout a condom.

   We did it raw.

   1 more example

   You know what I be on, I'm about to go raw

   2020, “What You Know Bout Love”, performed by Pop Smoke

   Synonyms: condomless

plural raws

1. sugar refining; sugar trade; sugar refining; sugar tradeAn unprocessed sugar; a batch of such.

   Early in the year the raws were melted to about 20 Brix in order to facilitate filtration.

   1921, “The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry”, in American Chemical Society, Volume 13, Part 1, page 149

   2 more examples

   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.

   1800, Louisiana Sugar Planters' Association, Lousiana Sugar Chemists' Association, American Cane Growers' Association, The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, volume 22, page 287

   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.

   1939, The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, Volume 148, Part 2, page 2924

2. A galled place; an inveterate sore.
3. broadlyfigurativelyA point about which a person is particularly sensitive.

   In a moment Tom was angry. The women saw that Bill had touched him upon the raw, and they went out of the room to prepare a meal.

   1934, Harold Heslop, Goaf, page 29

4. slanguncountableUnadulterated narcotics, especially crack cocaine

   The year is '94, in my trunk is raw

   2004, “99 Problems”, in The Black Album, performed by Jay-Z

5. slanganimeA recording or rip of a show that has not been fansubbed.
6. slangmangaA scan that has not been cleaned (purged of blemishes arising from the scanning process) and has not been scanlated.

present singular third person raws · participle present rawing · participle past rawed · past rawed

1. slangtransitiveTo sexually penetrate without a condom.

alternative R.A.W. · alternative R. A. W.

1. IndiaabbreviationacronyminitialismInitialism of Research and Analysis Wing.

   1 more example

   RAW is a well-known acronym in India for an organization whose detailed character and activities are not well-known. RAW stands for the Research and Analysis Wing either of India's prime minister's department or the cabinet's secretariat, which was established in 1968 to handle internal intelligence.

   [2008, Peter Lyon, Conflict Between India and Pakistan: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 140

   Synonyms: R&AW

alternative R.A.W. · alternative R. A. W.

1. abbreviationuncountablegamesAbbreviation of rules as written: the actual rules appearing in the rulebook, as opposed to house rules, or to rules that might have been intended (in the event of a mistake in the rulebook).

   Synonyms: RaW

2. abbreviationinitialismuncountablecomputingInitialism of read after write, a kind of data hazard.

plural Raws

1. A surname from Old English.