Raffles

[raf-uh lz] /ˈræf əlz/

noun, (often initial capital letter)
1.
a gentlemanly burglar, amateur housebreaker, or the like.
[raf-uh lz] /ˈræf əlz/
noun
1.
Sir Thomas Stamford, 1781–1826, English colonial administrator in the East Indies.
[raf-uh l] /ˈræf əl/
noun
1.
a form of lottery in which a number of persons buy one or more chances to win a prize.
verb (used with object), raffled, raffling.
2.
to dispose of by a raffle (often followed by off):
to raffle off a watch.
verb (used without object), raffled, raffling.
3.
to take part in a raffle.
[raf-uh l] /ˈræf əl/
noun
1.
.
2.
Nautical. a tangle, as of ropes, canvas, etc.
/ˈræfəlz/
noun
1.
Sir Thomas Stamford. 1781–1826, British colonial administrator: founded Singapore (1819) as a station for the British East India Company
/ˈræfəl/
noun
1.

verb
2.
(transitive) often foll by off. to dispose of (goods) in a raffle
n.

late 14c., “dice game,” from Old French rafle “dice game,” also “plundering,” perhaps from a Germanic source (cf. Middle Dutch raffel “dice game,” Old Frisian hreppa “to move,” Old Norse hreppa “to reach, get,” Swedish rafs “rubbish,” Old High German raspon “to scrape together, snatch up in haste,” German raffen “to snatch away, sweep off”), from Proto-Germanic *khrap- “to pluck out, snatch off.” The notion would be “to sweep up (the stakes), to snatch (the winnings).” Dietz connects the French word with the Germanic root, but OED is against this. Meaning “sale of chances” first recorded 1766.
v.

“dispose of by raffle,” 1851, from raffle (n.). Related: Raffled; raffling.