Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
adjective
- mildly or sometimes engagingly disreputable or nonconformist; rakish: a matinee idol whose raffish offstage behavior amused millions.
- gaudily vulgar or cheap; tawdry.
adjective
- careless or unconventional in dress, manners, etc; rakish
- tawdry; flashy; vulgar
“disreputable, vulgar,” 1801 (first attested in Jane Austen), from raff “people,” usually of a lower sort (1670s), probably from rif and raf (mid-14c.) “everyone,” from Middle English raf, raffe “one and all, everybody” (see riffraff). Related: Raffishly; raffishness.