How to Use rake up in a Sentence

rake up

verb
  • Don’t be so quick to rake up and dispose of dead plant matter.
    — Popular Mechanics, 23 Aug. 2020
  • Safely rake up the leaves and gather the sticks and branches.
    — Halee Miller Van Ryswyk, Better Homes & Gardens, 31 July 2024
  • Prepare the ground with a hoe and rake up the last of the winter leaves and needles.
    — Laura Wheatman Hill, chicagotribune.com, 17 Apr. 2021
  • Be sure to rake up all problem plants and clippings and dispose of them in the trash.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 28 Dec. 2025
  • Spring cleanup will be an easy matter of loosely raking up dead foliage.
    — Marie Iannotti, The Spruce, 9 May 2026
  • This little thing does a great job of raking up dog fluff that gets trapped in car upholstery.
    — Andrew P. Collins, The Drive, 24 June 2026
  • Here, too, the leaf litter had been raked up everywhere by turkeys.
    — Larry Dablemont, Outdoor Life, 5 Mar. 2025
  • These videos raked up hundreds of thousands of views and earned them some sponsorship deals.
    — Kyndall Cunningham, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
  • But some 70 nautical miles south, his beach photos raked up a storm.
    — Sheikh Saaliq, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Jan. 2024
  • Be sure to rake up pine needles and leaves and take care to prune the lowest tree branches at least 6 feet high.
    — Bryce Young Christopher Moran, WIRED, 20 July 2024
  • Tired of spending your weekends raking up endless piles of leaves until your arms ache?
    — Toni Sutton, PEOPLE, 8 Sep. 2025
  • What a relief not to have to rake up leaves with yellow jacket-filled, rotting apples.
    — Jeff Lowenfels | Alaska Gardening and Growing, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Sep. 2022
  • These leaf mulchers are set up in one spot in your yard and leaves are added to the hopper at the top after they are raked up into piles.
    — Renee Freemon Mulvihill, Better Homes & Gardens, 31 Jan. 2025
  • Sunday is shaping up to be a good day for Atlanta residents to rake up fall leaves.
    — Tyler Wilkins, ajc, 20 Nov. 2021
  • Go the extra step and rake up leaves, remove weeds and add a splash of color by planting blooming flowers.
    — Taylor Walcik, Dallas News, 5 June 2022
  • Djokovic hasn’t just been raking up trophies in his tennis career, but endorsements too.
    — Hikmat Mohammed, Footwear News, 21 May 2025
  • If a fungal infection plagued your shrubs, rake up diseased leaves and dispose of them before adding a layer of mulch.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 21 Oct. 2025
  • Leaf Mold Before raking up your leaves in the fall, consider using them as leaf mold to boost soil health.
    — Madeline Buiano, Martha Stewart, 25 June 2026
  • Afterward rake up sod manually with a square shovel or pitchfork.
    — oregonlive, 13 July 2020
  • However, in recent years, Wistron had raked up a few controversies.
    — Niharika Sharma, Quartz, 2 May 2023
  • According to the complaint, the male actor was directed to mount her, pin her down, and violently rake up her skirt.
    — Gene Maddaus, Variety, 28 May 2025
  • Hand rakes can clean tight spaces, which is especially handy when trying to rake up thin pine needles, which have a tendency to pile up in small nooks and crannies.
    — Gabriel Morgan, Better Homes & Gardens, 27 Oct. 2023
  • Hoping to make a name for himself back home, Swainson ventured inland, raking up every flora and fauna in sight.
    — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 28 Mar. 2025
  • To reduce food sources, rake up windfallen fruit and cover vulnerable vegetables with row covers.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 8 Sep. 2024
  • The most effective treatment to reduce the impact of bedstraw stickers is to rake up the sticky brown wads of the plant that still are setting in the shrub border and the edge of the lawn.
    — Calvin Finch, San Antonio Express-News, 7 May 2021
  • Mow the lawn to a lower height than usual, being sure to bag the grass clippings and rake up any remaining debris that can keep the seeds from coming into contact with the soil.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Many homeowners took advantage of Saturday's dry weather to rake up their remaining leaves.
    — Sarah Bowman, The Indianapolis Star, 9 Dec. 2021
  • Egyptian vultures have also been observed wielding twigs to rake up tufts of wool from sheep shearing pens and repurposing the wool as nest insulation.
    — Natalie Angier, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2023
  • Instead of leaving them all as mulch beneath the trees, rake up excess needles, especially those that accumulate on driveways and along curbs.
    — Luke Miller, Better Homes & Gardens, 4 Mar. 2026
  • If any of your trees, shrubs or perennials had serious insect or disease problems during the growing season, rake up those leaves and dispose of them outside your yard.
    — Beth Botts, chicagotribune.com, 14 Nov. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rake up.' 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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