muckrake means A rake for scraping up dung. It carries an Arena rating of 1646, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, muckrake ranks #42 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #190 of 17,128 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #465 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #793 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
Why “muckrake” is a great word
To bring to light corruption or scandal through persistent investigation, with an implication of focusing on sordid or unsavory details. It derives from muck ("dung, filth") and rake ("a tool with prongs"), a figurative use popularized by Theodore Roosevelt in a 1906 speech, alluding to the man with the muck-rake in John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1678). Unlike "investigate" (a neutral, systematic inquiry) or "defame" (the malicious spreading of falsehoods), to muckrake is to dredge up uncomfortable truths from the mire of public life. It is the relentless sifting through ledgers in a dim office, the follow-up question that hangs in a suddenly silent room, and the systematic cataloging of malfeasance until its pattern emerges—the grim but necessary work of cleansing, one foul scoop at a time.
Etymology
From muck + rake.
noun
- A rake for scraping up dung.
verb
- To search for and expose corruption or scandal, especially as a form of investigative journalism.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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