RASP Synonyms: 168 Similar and Opposite Words

rasp 1 of 2

noun

Definition of rasp

as in scratch

a harsh grating sound the rusted lock opened with a rasp

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rasp

2 of 2

verb

ˈrasp

as in to rub

to make smooth by friction after sawing the board in half, rasp the ends to remove any splinters

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to scratch

to pass roughly and noisily over or against a surface the sound of fingernails rasping on the blackboard makes me cringe

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to annoy

to disturb the peace of mind of (someone) especially by repeated disagreeable acts the two siblings seemed intent on rasping each other for the entire car trip

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to wear

to damage or diminish by continued friction during the last ice age, glaciers rasped the surface, leaving the deeply scarred rock

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of rasp

Noun

LaBelle, 82, gave an R&B rendition of the anthem, rife with her gospel rasp, ending with a belting high note to stadium cheers. — Taijuan Moorman, USA Today, 16 July 2026 Like Dijon, svn4vr uses a dexterous, soulful rasp to fight for emotional truth from within songs that occupy shifting senses of space and bear the seams of digital assembly. — H.d. Angel, Pitchfork, 9 Apr. 2026

Verb

When the beetle takes flight, the woman, who is busy unpacking, doesn’t realize for a moment that there’s something out of place about that rasping ruckus, that foreign hum. — María Ospina, The Dial, 31 Mar. 2026 Thrips have rasping, sucking mouthparts. — Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 3 Mar. 2026 See All Example Sentences for rasp

Recent Examples of Synonyms for rasp

Noun

The album featured the sexy, chicken-scratch funk of the 1970s melted down to something slow and gooey next to early-morning comedown music for a ’90s-style sunrise in the chill-out room.

— Jack Denton, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2026
The ice cream shop, currently open in the Brookside area, is known for its small-batch, made-from-scratch French-style ice cream and rotating flavor lineup.

— Chris Higgins, Kansas City Star, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of scratch

Verb

The discovery was made Wednesday in the Hickory Ridge area of east Charlotte, and responding officers report a man drenched in sweat tried to rub them down with garlic and bite them, according to an affidavit.

— Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 23 Oct. 2026
True, but there are other issues that rubbed me the wrong way (sorry).

— Valerie Monroe, Allure, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of rub

Verb

Startup Hamlet has parsed tens of thousands of city council meetings by scraping local governments’ video recordings, tagging comments as friendly or hostile to a potential project.

— J.D. Capelouto, semafor.com, 21 Oct. 2026
Last week, Meta faced backlash after legal experts warned that the tech giant’s sweeping new commercial terms of service seemed to give Meta permission to endlessly scrape websites linked on business pages.

— Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of scrape

Verb

Three outside law professors who reviewed the materials at the request of The Post said West Point's actions appear to violate the order issued by Judge Cathy Seibel in September that ended a lawsuit filed by a civilian professor at the academy.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 27 Oct. 2026
Joao Pedro Padua, a law professor at the Fluminense Federal University, said that Bolsonaro can file a lawsuit directly with the country’s electoral authorities or the Supreme Court, asking for the elections to be declared null and void.

— ELÉONORE HUGHES, Fortune, 26 Oct. 2026

Definition of file

Verb

On Monday, a court granted the US government’s request to deny release of a former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging a top-secret conference room to steal the frontier lab’s secrets.

— Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 19 Oct. 2026
And as the team moved into the couple’s guest house on their San Diego rental property, the filmmakers feared that the home was bugged and ordered a device to try to de-bug it, without success.

— Kirsten Chuba, HollywoodReporter, 7 Oct. 2026