Synonyms of raffish

raffish

adjective

ˈra-fish 

as in crass

lacking in refinement or good taste

the dowager cringed at the thought of raffish tourists in rough boots tromping all over her Persian rugs

Synonyms & Similar Words

• crass
• vulgar
• rude
• coarse
• common
• crude
• rough
• rugged
• uncouth
• lowbrow
• gross
• clumsy
• rough-hewn
• unpolished
• uncultured
• unrefined
• low
• tasteless
• roughneck
• uncultivated
• ill-bred
• illiberal
• insensible
• loutish
• clownish
• boorish
• rustic
• ungentlemanly
• incult
• lowbred
• lubberly
• cloddish
• oafish
• churlish
• lumpish
• unsophisticated
• indelicate
• countrified
• thoughtless
• provincial
• inconsiderate
• tacky
• insensitive
• unmannered
• inelegant
• unmannerly
• graceless
• uncivilized
• barbarous
• barbaric
• mannerless
• animallike

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• smooth
• genteel
• civilized
• cultured
• polished
• aristocratic
• tasteful
• refined
• cultivated
• patrician
• courtly
• elegant
• graceful
• well-bred
• restrained
• sensitive
• gracious
• thoughtful
• ultrarefined
• sophisticated
• urbane
• considerate
• citified

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of raffish

Three or four decades ago, the newspaperman was appealingly raffish—at once a bum who drank too much and a knight-errant who charged unafraid at social injustice, succored the weak, and crossed lances with the powerful and arrogant. — David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025

A little lowly courier work, yes, but nothing more raffish than that. — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025

The banal village tunes that Mahler altered into sinister mock vulgarities—did these not recall the raffish klezmer bands, the wandering musicians who played at shtetl weddings? — David Denby, The Atlantic, 1 Apr. 2025

There’s an over-the-top and overdressed fish out of water (me), a raffish Englishmen homesick for Great Britain (my husband Aidan, who will be mortified to read any of this), and an ensemble of quirky characters. — Mosha Lundström Halbert, Vogue, 20 Dec. 2024

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