as in corrupt
having or showing lowered moral character or standards
within a few short years their rakish son had squandered the family fortune on hard liquor and fast cars
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Recent Examples of rakish
Top 5 Can’t Miss Tequila here is made for sipping—at rakish cantinas, ambitious cocktail bars, and straight from the source on a distillery tour.
—
David Shortell, Travel + Leisure, 28 Sep. 2025
Historical trappings aside, the role marks a departure from the rakish George Wickham or anyone he’s portrayed before.
—Alex Ritman, Variety, 12 Sep. 2025
In addition, Schwartzman portrays Burton, a rakish vampire leading a cloistered life in an Upper West Side penthouse, while Bogosian plays Daniel Molloy, and Kirk is Talamasca agent Raglan James.
—Lynette Rice, Deadline, 4 Sep. 2025
The former is the nerdier, more officious type in his bow tie and sport coat, the latter more rakish, a one-time rabble rouser who’s just happy to have something interesting to do.
—Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 28 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rakish
David Shortell, Travel + Leisure, 28 Sep. 2025
Historical trappings aside, the role marks a departure from the rakish George Wickham or anyone he’s portrayed before.
—Alex Ritman, Variety, 12 Sep. 2025
In addition, Schwartzman portrays Burton, a rakish vampire leading a cloistered life in an Upper West Side penthouse, while Bogosian plays Daniel Molloy, and Kirk is Talamasca agent Raglan James.
—Lynette Rice, Deadline, 4 Sep. 2025
The former is the nerdier, more officious type in his bow tie and sport coat, the latter more rakish, a one-time rabble rouser who’s just happy to have something interesting to do.
—Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 28 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rakish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rakish
Adjective
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Those include Mexico's Sinaloa cartel as well as the Cartel de los soles, or Cartel of the Suns, a term used to describe a loose network of corrupt, high-ranking military officers in neighboring Venezuela.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
21 Mar. 2026
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Elphaba stands up against the corrupt Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) while the frenemies evolve their relationship and sing a lot in an unexpectedly relevant fantasy flick about standing up for what’s right.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
20 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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About 200 had been recorded by experts over the following centuries, but the remaining messages were too degraded to read — until RTI brought them into focus.—
Ryan Brennan,
Kansas City Star,
9 Mar. 2026
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Looking ahead, the Few & Far team is working to restore more than 200,000 acres of land in the area, replant degraded forests, and safeguard endangered wildlife.—
Lale Arikoglu,
Condé Nast Traveler,
8 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The indictment says one customer paid $10,000 in vet bills after buying sick German Shepherds.—
J.D. Miles,
CBS News,
24 Mar. 2026
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The move comes as air travelers are experiencing longer security lines and a growing number of TSA agents are quitting or calling in sick.—
Brittney Melton,
NPR,
23 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Similarly, Early’s dissolute failson feels less like a self-portrait than like a darkly comic deflection, a gargoyle-ish stand-in for his creator’s anxieties.—
Emily Nussbaum,
New Yorker,
12 Mar. 2026
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The Celine sculptures possess a dissolute drama, their icy white light toggling between the enticing and the clinical.—
Rachel Wetzler,
Artforum,
1 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Until then, smuggling weed had been a grand adventure, an escape from a society that had just thrown Prager’s generation into a meat grinder in Vietnam, a repudiation of the crooked politicians and backward preachers and greedy capitalists who were running the world.—
Jack Crosbie,
Rolling Stone,
17 Mar. 2026
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For the most part, this lineup, chock full of All-Stars and Hall of Famers, has struggled to put up crooked numbers.—
Johnny Flores Jr,
New York Times,
17 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Pasta primavera, a 1970s classic tailored to the season’s harvest, is packed with produce and cloaked in a decadent cream sauce.—
Jesse Szewczyk,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
23 Mar. 2026
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Here revelers can soak up the sun, nibble on snacks from Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s J&G Grill (which houses a decadent 13,000-bottle wine cellar), or take in the panorama of the mountains above or the scene at the multilevel heated pool below.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
21 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Rakish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rakish. Accessed 26 Mar. 2026.
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