How to Use raffish in a Sentence

raffish

adjective
  • Brighton, a resort on the south coast, is well known as a raffish, radical place.
    — Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2020
  • The students, raffish blue bloods, wear a uniform of chic navy with scarlet piping.
    — Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 2 Oct. 2018
  • A little lowly courier work, yes, but nothing more raffish than that.
    — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Hinckley, who is twenty-nine, had a blond cascade of hair, round glasses, and a short, raffish beard.
    — Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 15 May 2017
  • Young Lendrum’s prowess earned him a raffish preeminence among his peers.
    — Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2020
  • Indeed, weren’t these childish fantasies of escape, these raffish homages to crime flicks, already passé when the film was made five decades ago?
    — Hazlitt, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Huggins is now seen as a raffish college basketball raconteur, not an outlaw.
    — Christopher L. Gasper, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Mar. 2018
  • But McConaughey has a raffish charm that makes such high jinks forgivable.
    — Steve Chapman, chicagotribune.com, 21 Apr. 2021
  • Kids join academies as raffish improvisors, little bundles of wild ideas and schemes.
    — New York Times, 10 June 2026
  • Max Hardberger, a raffish oceanic repo man, stars in Urbina’s heist story.
    — Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post, 12 Sep. 2019
  • And then there's a top-of-his-game Chevy Chase as a devil-may-care golfer and Bill Murray as a raffish groundskeeper.
    — Jesse Hassenger, Entertainment Weekly, 18 June 2026
  • He is frequently spotted partying hard in fancy nightclubs across London, flashing a raffish grin.
    — Sarah Lyall, Town & Country, 8 Jan. 2013
  • Basking in the afternoon sunshine, cherry-red metallic paint glinting off its fulsome curves, the Caton exudes a raffish retro glamor.
    — Tim Pitt, Robb Report, 9 Dec. 2022
  • Stevens begins his account with an introduction to his ancestors, all of whom were show people in the gloriously raffish tradition.
    — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 17 June 2022
  • Theo Gibson — a cynical, chain-smoking bachelor who cut a raffish figure on Leverett’s campus — looms over those years.
    — New York Times, 5 Apr. 2022
  • These raffish characters make no bones about having chosen one another, starting with grandma, who chose the whole bunch as an insurance policy against a lonely death.
    — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 22 Nov. 2018
  • Kevin, an Englishman living in Marseille, agreed to meet with the young Helder, who hoped to learn a few secrets of the trade from a master with a raffish reputation.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2020
  • Jonathan Majors cements his status as charismatic leading man as the raffish outlaw on a quest to hunt down those responsible for his requisite personal tragedy.
    — Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 17 Jan. 2024
  • The best emerging writers metaphorically reject their domineering parents and gravitate to their raffish uncles and outcast aunts.
    — Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 16 Oct. 2019
  • The show is raffish, quirky, whip-smart, defiantly non-commercial, and totally unafraid to offend, especially from the left side of the political spectrum.
    — Joey Morona, cleveland.com, 21 Apr. 2018
  • His descriptions of the New York City of that era, and of the show-business personalities the twins met (including Barnum), are raffish and vivid.
    — Melanie Benjamin, WSJ, 12 Apr. 2018
  • 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
  • In the documentary, Ledger’s best friend Trevor Di Carlo accompanies him on all his filming escapades, snapping rare images of the raffish star in his downtime.
    — Yohana Desta, VanityFair.com, 4 May 2017
  • Sharif’s raffish looks and onscreen charisma quickly earned him leading roles, including the titular part in Doctor Zhivago, which earned him an Oscar nomination.
    — Laignee Barron, Time, 10 Apr. 2018
  • The second is Jeremy Irons’ suave and subtle portrayal of James Tyrone — one consummate actor stepping into the raffish skin of another.
    — Matt Cooper, latimes.com, 22 June 2018
  • The book moves from Johnny’s experiences in raffish 1970s London to the city’s turn-of-the-millennium rave scene to his social life after the arrival of dating apps like Grindr, which turn out to be a boon for old as well as young men.
    — Dwight Garner, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2018
  • Istanbul is both ancient and contemporary, elegant and raffish, traditional and innovative, and very multicultural, especially as related to art, cuisine, lifestyle, and commerce.
    — Karen Fedorko Sefer, Town & Country, 5 Oct. 2016

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'raffish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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