Definition of "raff"

raff¹

/ɹæf/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural raffs
1. A promiscuous heap; a jumble; a large quantity; lumber; refuse.
  Quotations
  A raff of errors.
  1680, Isaac Barrow, A Discourse Concerning The Unity Of The Church
2. The common rabble or mob; riffraff.
  Quotations
  Jostling with unemployed labourers of the lowest class, ballast-heavers, coal-whippers, brazen women, ragged children, and the raff and refuse of the river, he makes his way with difficulty along […]
  1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist‎
3. A low fellow; a churl.
verb
third-person singular simple present raffs, present participle raffing, simple past and past participle raffed
1. To sweep, snatch, draw, or huddle together; to take by a promiscuous sweep.
  Quotations
  Causes and effects which I thus raffe up together.
  1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769

raff²

/ɹæf/

noun
plural raffs
1. (nautical) A three-cornered sail set on a schooner when before the wind.