
adjective, raw·er, raw·est.
- uncooked, as articles of food: a raw carrot.
- not having undergone processes of preparing, dressing, finishing, refining, or manufacture: raw cotton.
- unnaturally or painfully exposed, as flesh, by removal of the skin or natural integument.
- painfully open, as a sore or wound.
- crude in quality or character; not tempered or refined by art or taste: raw humor.
- ignorant, inexperienced, or untrained: a raw recruit.
- brutally or grossly frank: a raw portrayal of human passions.
- brutally harsh or unfair: a raw deal; receiving raw treatment from his friends.
- disagreeably damp and chilly, as the weather or air: a raw, foggy day at the beach.
- not diluted, as alcoholic spirits: raw whiskey.
- unprocessed or unevaluated: raw data.
noun
- a sore or irritated place, as on the flesh.
- unrefined sugar, oil, etc.
- in the raw,
- in the natural, uncultivated, or unrefined state: nature in the raw.
- Informal.in the nude; naked: sunbathing in the raw.
adjective
- (of food) not cookedraw onion
- (prenominal) in an unfinished, natural, or unrefined state; not treated by manufacturing or other processesraw materials for making steel; raw brick
- (of an edge of material) unhemmed; liable to fray
- (of the skin, a wound, etc) having the surface exposed or abraded, esp painfully
- ignorant, inexperienced, or immaturea raw recruit
- (prenominal) not selected or modifiedraw statistics
- frank or realistica raw picture of the breakdown of a marriage
- (of spirits) undiluted
- mainly US coarse, vulgar, or obscene
- mainly US recently done; freshraw paintwork
- (of the weather) harshly cold and damp
- informal unfair; unjust (esp in the phrase a raw deal)
noun
- the raw British informal a sensitive pointhis criticism touched me on the raw
- in the raw
- informalwithout clothes; naked
- in a natural or unmodified statelife in the raw
Old English hreaw “uncooked, raw,” from Proto-Germanic *khrawaz (cf. Old Norse hrar, Danish raa, Old Saxon hra, Middle Dutch rau, Dutch rauw, Old High German hrawer, German roh), from PIE root *kreue- (1) “raw flesh” (cf. Sanskrit kravih “raw flesh,” krura- “bloody, raw, hard;” Greek kreas “flesh;” Latin crudus “not cooked,” cruor “thick blood;” Old Irish cru, Lithuanian kraujas, Old Church Slavonic kruvi “blood;” Old English hrot “thick fluid, serum”).
Meaning “tender, sore” is from late 14c.; of persons, “inexperienced” from 1560s; of weather, “damp and chilly” first recorded 1540s. Related: Rawly; rawness. Raw material is from 1796, with sense of “in a rudimental condition, unfinished.” Phrase in the raw “naked” (1921) is from the raw “exposed flesh,” attested from 1823. Raw deal “harsh treatment” attested by 1893.
adj.
- Having subcutaneous tissue exposed.
- Inflamed; sore.
In addition to the idiom beginning with raw
- raw deal
also see:
- in the altogether (raw)