RACY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Racy

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/rˈeɪsi/ Listen

adjective

Racy adj. (compar. racier; superl. raciest)

1.

Having a strong flavor indicating origin; of distinct characteristic taste; tasting of the soil; hence, fresh; rich. "The racy wine, Late from the mellowing cask restored to light."

2.

Hence: Exciting to the mental taste by a strong or distinctive character of thought or language; peculiar and piquant; fresh and lively; vigorous; spirited. "Our raciest, most idiomatic popular words." "Burns's English, though not so racy as his Scotch, is generally correct." "The rich and racy humor of a natural converser fresh from the plow."

3.

Somewhat suggestive of sexual themes; slightly improper; risqué.

Synonyms: Spicy; spirited; lively; smart; piquant; risqué. Racy, Spicy. Racy refers primarily to that peculiar flavor which certain wines are supposed to derive from the soil in which the grapes were grown; and hence we call a style or production racy when it "smacks of the soil," or has an uncommon degree of natural freshness and distinctiveness of thought and language. Spicy, when applied to style, has reference to a spirit and pungency added by art, seasoning the matter like a condiment. It does not, like racy, suggest native peculiarity. A spicy article in a magazine; a spicy retort. Racy in conversation; a racy remark. "Rich, racy verses, in which we The soil from which they come, taste, smell, and see."

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Etymology of 'Racy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Racy" Quotes from Famous Books

... cannot be said or done to secure intestinal cleanliness in infancy, childhood and maturity. Mothers and nurses cannot give this subject too much thought and care, since the welfare of future generations depends largely upon intestinal cleanliness, in view of the rich and racy life of our hothouse civilization. We are a people poisoned through constipation and diarrhea: two affections that derange more lives than all other pathological conditions together. Banish alimentary uncleanliness and you take most of the poisons from the human race—poisons that ...

— Intestinal Ills • Alcinous Burton Jamison

... a Middy with much of that delightful ease we are wont to admire in the writings of Smollett, Fielding, and the character novelists of the latter half of the past century. The style of Captain Marryatt is fresh, vigorous, and racy—"native and to the manner born,"—abounding in lively anecdote, but never straying into caricature—with just enough of the romance of life to keep the incidents afloat from commonplace, and probability above-board. This and the ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, - Issue 563, August 25, 1832 • Various

... such face I now remember; one such blank some half a dozen of us labor to dissemble. In his youth he was a most beautiful person, most serene and genial by disposition, full of racy words and quaint thoughts. Laughter attended on his coming.... From this disaster like a spent swimmer he came desperately ashore, bankrupt of money and consideration; creeping to the family he had deserted; with broken wing never more ...

— Emerson and Other Essays • John Jay Chapman

... them. Down the quiet, tree-shaped sidewalk, Mr. Penfield Evans strode into the somnolent afternoon, turning down Huron Street. At the remote end of the block and before her large frame mansion of a thousand angles and wooden lace work, Mrs. Harvey Herrington's low car sidled to her curb-stone, racy-looking as a hound. That lady herself, large and modish, was in the act of stepping ...

— The Sturdy Oak - A Composite Novel of American Politics by Fourteen American Authors • Samuel Merwin, et al.

... Bingo was on the Staff, and it would be so nice for him, poor dear, to have his wife near him in case he happened to get ... was "chipped" the proper technical term, or "potted"? The articles were intended to be the real thing—racy of the soil, don't you know? and full of "go" and atmosphere. Let it be said here that they achieved raciness. The London print in which they appeared came to be christened by the scoffer and the incredulous the Daily Whale—it swallowed and disgorged so many of the Jonahs rejected by other editors. ...

— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

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