RACY • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • 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

... steel plates. They gave details of hotel accommodation and of means of communication, such as we now expect to find in any well-regulated guide-book, and they dealt largely in reported conversations with intelligent foreigners, racy innkeepers, and garrulous peasants. In a word, they ...

— Ghost Stories of an Antiquary • Montague Rhodes James

... keeps the rude And racy flavour of the wood. And you that loved the empty plain All redolent of wind and rain, Around you still the curlew sings - The freshness of the weather clings - The maiden jewels of the rain Sit in your dabbled ...

— Underwoods • Robert Louis Stevenson

... in 1474 fell on April 10th, thus giving, as the day of the conclusion of the translation, 31 March 1475, the same year being the earliest possible period of its appearance as a printed book." Then there is Caxton's own racy account of the circumstances under which the book ...

— Game and Playe of the Chesse - A Verbatim Reprint Of The First Edition, 1474 • Caxton

... there, in that cozy little parlor, with its sunny bow window full of flowers, and its bright Lehigh fire, and softly cushioned chairs; that cozy parlor, where the little round table, with its snowy cloth, had been so often spread; and the fragrant coffee, and delicate tea-biscuit, and racy newspaper had been so often discussed; where John, in his slippers and dressing-gown, with his dark hair pushed off his broad forehead, read to us page after page of some favorite author, while the wind was welcome to whistle itself dumb outside the threshold, and old Winter ...

— Little Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends • Fanny Fern

... is undoubtedly much larger, coarser, stronger—much more racy and democratic—than the ideal we are familiar with in current literature, and upon which our culture is largely based. He applies the democratic spirit not only to the material of poetry,—excluding all the old stock themes of love and war, lords and ladies, myths and fairies and legends, ...

— Whitman - A Study • John Burroughs

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