rake-off

rake off

1. To clear a surface of something, especially leaves, with a rake. Would you go rake off the lawn, please? It's covered in dead leaves!
2. To clean, clear, or scrape something off of some area or surface with or as if with a rake. A noun or pronoun can be used between "rake" and "off." I need to go rake those dead leaves off the sidewalk. The mower doesn't have a bag to catch the clippings, so you have to rake off the grass by hand once you've cut the lawn.
3. To clear something off (of something) with a sweeping motion, as if with a rake. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "rake" and "off." She raked all the documents off the desk in a fit of anger. He took a large cloth and raked off all the dust that had accumulated on the shelf.
4. To make a profit from some illegal, inappropriate, or dishonest transaction. The mayor quickly resigned after it was discovered he was raking off money from the city's budget to help finance his gambling addiction.
See also: off, rake

rake-off

Profits made from a transaction, usually in an inappropriate, illegal, or dishonest way. The mayor quickly resigned after it was discovered he was taking a rake-off from the local cartel's drug sales.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

rake something off (of) something

 and rake something off
to remove something from something by raking. (Of is usually retained before pronouns.) Please rake the leaves off the lawn. Rake off the leaves.
See also: off, rake
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

rake off

Make an unlawful profit, as in They suspected her of raking off some of the campaign contributions for her personal use . This expression alludes to the raking of chips by an attendant at a gambling table. [Late 1800s]
See also: off, rake
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • rake off
  • clear (something) from (something)
  • clear from some place
  • clear (something) with (someone)
  • clear with
  • crystal clear
  • crystal clear, be
  • be crystal clear
  • clear of
  • clear of (something)
References in periodicals archive
If there were no 'rake-off' from betting, there would be no racing; at least, not racing as we know it.
A feature a day would keep the boredom at bay
They were popular with the Treasury, which got a sizeable rake-off from their profits.
Era of great unwashed is dead and gone... Good hygiene may have wiped out diseases that have blighted previous: generations, but it's not all good news: Nit nurses, tin baths and penicillin - writer and Western Mail columnist Elaine Morgan explains how our health has changed and whether there's any hope of tackling the obesity epidemic
A letter, from a Mrs Linda Nkomo, asks for help to transfer EUR8million in return for a 30 per cent rake-off.
400 people fall prey to tricksters; SCAMS: Victims lose an average of pounds 850 apiece
A spokesman for one of the big mobile operators tried to equate the mobile rake-off with the price of a stamp ( 26p ( on money you send by post.
Would a cut-price rate really hurt?
Mr Sandison cited this week's rise in national insurance contributions, the failure to increase personal tax allowances in line with inflation, the pounds 5 billion a year rake-off from pension funds, and rising house prices that are catching more and more people in the inheritance tax trap as examples of the Government's willingness to impose stealth taxes on individuals.
Ease taxpayers' burden, experts tell Chancellor
The mechanisms that guide the CFA-Euro operations in effect structurally and negatively block the economic rake-off of the 15 CFA zone countries.
CFA, the devil is in the details: the Ivorian economist and author of Le Franc CFA et l'Euro Contre l'Afrique, Prof Nicholas Agbohou, bares it all in this interview with Ruth Nabakwe. (Insight)
That's a grotesque rake-off and it should be penalised with a windfall tax.
RECORD VIEW
And it is 920% more than the PS10 annual rake-off per customer in 2009.
Energy fatcats' PS102 profit from every household; Estimated rise is twice 2013 figure
This Government is more than happy with the excessive tax rake-off on the sale of alcohol, but simply doesn't want to hand any of it over to policing what they created in the first place.
Police bill for Labour; Mailbag
Win, place and even forecast tote pools make limited appeal to serious punters, especially given the large rake-off taken by the tracks from what is often an unappealingly small pool in the first place.
Dog Racing: Jackpots and streaming coming to a PC near you; ODDS AND DOGS
Some of them have been keeping it themselves I understand, and others have been passing it on to claim farmers; thats people thats been directing these poor, sick, unfortunate, elderly miners to these solicitors, and theyve been having the rake-off. I think it is appalling.
Call to shame firms 'raking off' payouts
FORMER miners in Nuneaton, Bedworth and north Warwick-shire could lose as much as pounds 7,000 in pension pay-outs because of windfall rake-off by the government.
Former miners' pension pay-out campaign
His rake-off - through his company Gestifute (which has over a billion pounds' worth of talent on its books) - during this last transfer window is believed to be around [euro]38m.
THE [euro]1BN FIXER; Meet super agent Mendes, who brokers the biggest deals across Europe... and he's had a very lucrative summer
When this ban was lifted it was said be a result of pressure from filling stations, where profit margins left little room to pay a rake-off to any card company.
Family Finance
FAT Cat Sam Laidlaw (below), head of Centrica which owns British Gas, is heading for a pounds 1million pay rise, taking his annual rake-off to pounds 2.8million.
GAS GUZZLER SAM