RACY • DICTIONARY ONE.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

... Mr Trotter, greatly relieved. "I want a book of twenty pages. Write anything you like, only bring the pickles in on each page. You know the style. Twenty blood-curdling ballads, or Aesop's fables, or something the public's bound to read. Something racy, mind, and all ending in the pickle. It's a good thing, so you needn't be afraid of overdoing it. You shall have a bob a page, money down, or twenty-five bob for the lot if you let me have it this time to- morrow. Remember, nothing ...

— A Dog with a Bad Name • Talbot Baines Reed

... Rochefort's paper next day, to see what his correspondent had to say about the visit. Some passages from it are too racy ...

— In Troubadour-Land - A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc • S. Baring-Gould

... 16. Coined in the early 1960s to replace earlier 'sexadecimal', which was too racy and amusing for stuffy IBM, and later adopted by the rest ...

— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0

... ever he saw that the riders were close at hand, and that the horses did not get out on the slope of sage. He sat back and gloried in the sight. He owned bands of mustangs; near by was a field of them, fine and mettlesome and racy; yet Bostil had eyes only for the blooded favorites. Strange it was that not one of these was a mustang or a broken wild horse, for many of the riders' best mounts had been captured by them or the Indians. And it was Bostil's supreme ambition ...

— Wildfire • Zane Grey

... of certain city conditions. In the choice of Mr. Augustus Thomas's "In Mizzoura"—"The Witching Hour" having so often been used in dramatic collections—the Editor believes he has represented this playwright at a time when his dramas were most racy and native. ...

— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: - Introduction and Bibliography • Montrose J. Moses

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