RACY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Racy

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/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."

See images of 'Racy'

Etymology of 'Racy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Racy" Quotes from Famous Books

... such abundance of thoughts: he is never dull, never insincere, and has the genius to make the reader care for all that he cares for. Cut these words and they bleed; they are vascular and alive." Such a voice, speaking at Shakspere's ear in an English nearly as racy and nervous as the incomparable old-new French of the original, was in ...

— Montaigne and Shakspere • John M. Robertson

... pointed epigram, the ready jest and the quick repartee that endear Mr. John Burns' speeches to the multitude. His sayings and phrases are quoted. His wit is the wit of the Londoner—the wit that Dickens knew and studied, the wit of the older cabmen and 'bus drivers, the wit of the street boy. It is racy, it is understood, and the illustrations are always concrete and massive, never vague or unsubstantial. Apt Shakespearian quotations, familiar and unfamiliar, embellish the speeches. Personality, vital personality, counts for so much in the orator ...

— The Rise of the Democracy • Joseph Clayton

... with affection, I often think of those pleasant times, In the days of Fraser, ere I touched a razor, How I read and revell'd in thy racy rhymes; When in wine and wassail, we to thee were vassal, Of Watergrass-hill, O renowned P.P.! May the bells of Shandon Toll blithe and bland on The ...

— Poems • Denis Florence MacCarthy

... considerably disappointed in Wilson's "Letters." We looked for something racy, having the full flavor of the author's best spirits. We found them plain matter-of-fact, not what we should term at all characteristic. Perhaps it was more natural that they should be of this sort. ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 65, March, 1863 • Various

... Norman chroniclers describe the preparations of William on his landing, with a graphic vigour, which would be wholly lost by transfusing their racy Norman couplets and terse Latin prose into the current style of modern history. It is best to follow them closely, though at the expense of much quaintness and occasional uncouthness of expression. They tell us how Duke William's own ship ...

— The Fifteen Decisive Battles of The World From Marathon to Waterloo • Sir Edward Creasy, M.A.

Copyright © 2025 Diccionario ingles.com