rakehell

The OED's second instance is taken from Sir George Etherege's She wou'd if she cou'd (1668), where it is applied three times to the disreputable Rakehell, once in the cast list and twice by other characters, most interestingly by Sir Joslin when introducing Rakehell to Sir Oliver: "Let me commend this ingenious Gentleman to your Aquaintance; he is a Knight of Industry" ([1688] 1888, 173).

(8) Yet in 1586 Oxford theologian John Rainolds lists 'Stukeley the rakehell' as one of the 'traitours in Ireland', and despite the critical commonplace, Peele's characterization of Stukeley complements Rainolds's sentiment.

For, from the brilliance of his mind, sprang one of the greatest cads in British literature, Sir Harry Paget Flashman (1822-1915)-proud brute, cheat, womaniser, jibbering coward, rakehell, who rode through the stench and blood of Victorian history, but always emerged triumphant and superbly dressed to collect his totally undeserved gongs.

One of the more recent analysts of the play has suggested that Everyman is a different kind of character altogether: the idle dandy or gallaunt, (22) who is conventionally a rakehell, a profligate country heir, a class-climber with courtly pretensions, or all of the above.

Franco himself came from a naval family--his paternal grandfather was an Intendente-General (equivalent to Vice Admiral) in the Corps of Naval Administrators; his maternal grandfather was a Rear Admiral in the Corps of Naval Constructors; his father, the rakehell and ne'er do well Don Nicolas, was an officer in the Corps of Naval Administrators, eventually to rise to the same rank as his own father--Intendente-General; and his brother Nicolas was an officer in the line who was eventually to rise to the rank of Admiral.

This is the background to a new challenge for Christopher Redmayne, professional architect turned amateur sleuth, and his friend the constable Jonathan Bale, after the body of one time Rakehell Gabriel Cheever is found beside the Thames.

Paganini" --by that notorious rakehell and virtuoso, who sold it to Vuillaume.

In Henry V Canterbury describes Hal's carefully staged transformation from rakehell to Christian king in agricultural terms, reminding us of the ancient link between theater and Dionysian fertility: