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What is "rasp"

Crossword clues for rasp

rasp
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
rasp
I.verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I heard John's voice rasping in the other room.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He lowered his head into his hands, fingers rasping whiskers.
▪ Many gastropods are grazers: they use their radula to rasp away at algae.
▪ She touched one of the trees, and the grey bark was deeply grooved, rasping her fingers.
▪ Sycorax would not reply except to rasp her curses.
▪ Then I heard a voice rasping in my head.
▪ This can be rasped down effectively to give no further problems.
▪ We went up to the ward, by which time he was making very odd, rasping sounds as he breathed.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Roger lowered his voice to a rasp.
▪ the rasp of a rake on dead leaves
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Aeroplanes resound to the deafening rasp of anorak pen-pockets when passengers are told to fill in their landing cards.
▪ Except for the rasp of the crickets, it was very quiet.
▪ He answers in a high-pitched rasp that makes it sound as if his voice will fail him next.
▪ Surforms come in a range of styles, including flat rasps, planer-files, round files and block planes.
▪ The rasp of his fingers was distinct in the stillness.
▪ The bone of his jaw, the rasp of his beard, sent another great shiver through her.
▪ The coughing, the rustling of the newspapers, the rasp of coat buttons on table or chair exasperated his brooding.
▪ There was something in his voice, a little rasp of feeling, that touched me.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rasp

Rasp \Rasp\, n. [OE. raspe, OF. raspe, F. r[^a]pe. See Rasp, v.]

  1. A coarse file, on which the cutting prominences are distinct points raised by the oblique stroke of a sharp punch, instead of lines raised by a chisel, as on the true file.

  2. The raspberry. [Obs.] ``Set sorrel amongst rasps, and the rasps will be the smaller.''
    --Bacon.

    Rasp palm (Bot.), a Brazilian palm tree ( Iriartea exorhiza) which has strong a["e]rial roots like a screw pine. The roots have a hard, rough surface, and are used by the natives for graters and rasps, whence the common name.

Rasp

Rasp \Rasp\ (r[.a]sp), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Rasped (r[.a]spt); p. pr. & vb. n. Rasping.] [OF. rasper, F. r[^a]per, to scrape, grate, rasp, fr. OHG. rasp[=o]n to scrape together, to collect, probably akin to E. rap. Cf. Rap to snatch.]

  1. To rub or file with a rasp; to rub or grate with a rough file; as, to rasp wood to make it smooth; to rasp bones to powder.

  2. Hence, figuratively: To grate harshly upon; to offend by coarse or rough treatment or language; as, some sounds rasp the ear; his insults rasped my temper.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
rasp

mid-13c., "to scrape," from Middle Dutch raspen and from Old French rasper (Modern French râper) "to grate, rasp," which is perhaps from a West Germanic source (compare Old English gehrespan) akin to the root of raffle. Vocalic sense is from 1843. Related: Rasped; rasping.

rasp

"coarse file," 1540s, from Middle French raspe (Modern French râpe), from Old French rasper "to rasp" (see rasp (v.)).

Wiktionary
rasp

n. 1 A coarse file, on which the cutting prominences are distinct points raised by the oblique stroke of a sharp punch, instead of lines raised by a chisel, as on the true file. 2 The sound made by this tool when used, or any similar sound. 3 (context obsolete English) The raspberry. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To use a rasp. 2 (context intransitive English) To make a noise similar to the one a rasp makes in use; to utter rasps. 3 (context transitive English) To work something with a rasp. 4 (context transitive figurative English) To grate harshly upon; to offend by coarse or rough treatment or language.

Related phrases:
WordNet
rasp

  1. n. uttering in an irritated tone [syn: rasping]

  2. a coarse file with sharp pointed projections [syn: wood file]

rasp

  1. v. scrape with a rasp

  2. utter in a grating voice

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
RASP

A rasp is a tool used for shaping wood or other material.

Rasp or RASP may also refer to:

  • Ranger Assessment and Selection Program, the United States Army Rangers selection and training
  • RASP computing model, random-access stored-program machine
  • The Rasp, a book by Philip MacDonald
  • Residents Against SARP Pollution

Usage examples of "rasp".

Whatever be the inequality in the hardness of the materials of which the rock consists, even in the case of pudding-stone, the surface is abraded so evenly as to leave the impression that a rigid rasp has moved over all the undulations of the land, advancing in one and the same direction and levelling all before it.

There was only the sound of the rain and the rasp of breathing while the girl, mute, amnesiac, shorn, and wasted, climbed out over the brink of the mine-shaft.

The Hawkmaster took Rohain among the sounds of the mewsthe tiny tintinnabulation of bells, the bird-screams and whistles and chatter, the rasping whirr of rousing wings, the talk among the austringers and falconers.

Movement stirred in the corner as Eater entered, with a rasping hiss of scales and fur, of uncoiling neck and unfolding feeder arms.

He heard a rasping, flacketing buzz, like a big insect, and glanced up with a scowl into the stormy gloom.

A metallic, slithering rasp roared through the underground halls, the sound of a thousand habergeons of chain mail being dragged rapidly across riveted sheet iron.

He jumped back as Heldar advanced and felt the point rasp across his chest, laving open the plastic and baring the protective mesh beneath.

Also there was immediately a reversal of bird form, a shatterment of sentiment, a rasping maddening note from somewhere in the dome of a pipal tree.

He rose, pivoting smoothly and very fast, the sword coming free of the scabbard with a rasping hiss of steel on greased leather and wood.

Rake rumbled up to the opening, iron claws rasping, and tentacles lashing out against the stone walls, beginning its probe within.

So Tom Ryfe departed from his garden of Eden with sundry misgivings not entirely new to him, that the fruit he took such pains to ripen for his own gathering might but be gaudy wax-work after all, or painted stone, perhaps, cold, smooth, and beautiful, against which he should rasp his teeth in vain.

She tries to speak gently, but the vocoder strips her voice down to a soft rasp.

As he spoke Wildred stooped and with a great rasp commenced filing upon the iron rivets that held the hinged anklet in place.

The herbs in whatever it was Xenia had brought eased the rasp in his throat, but only somewhat.

Enough of a breeze was blowing to rasp mangrove boughs together occasionally, a sound somewhat as if skeletons were being moved about.