Definition of "rave"

rave¹

/ɹeɪv/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural raves
1. (informal, countable) An enthusiastic review (such as of a play).
  Quotations
  The first-night audience, yes. The first-night reviewers, not exactly. The notices have so far been mixed, only The Financial Times having delivered itself of an unequivocal rave.
  1989, The New York Times Theater Reviews, 1920-, volume 18, page 167
2. An all-night dance party with electronic dance music (techno, trance, drum and bass etc.) in small unknown clubs.
3. (music, uncountable) The genres of electronic dance music maded to be played in rave parties.
  Quotations
  Maybe I wear baggies / And white socks with flip-flops / Maybe I don't like listening to rave / And I'm not on the social mountaintops
  2009, Chrysalis Experiential Academy, Mind Harvesting, page 109
verb
third-person singular simple present raves, present participle raving, simple past and past participle raved
1. (intransitive) To be mentally unclear; to be delirious; to talk or act irrationally; to be wild, furious, or raging.
  Quotations
  1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, Act I, scene iv, page 1
  The mingled torrent of redcoats and tartans went raving down the valley to the gorge of Killiecrankie.
  1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 13, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
2. (intransitive) To speak or write wildly or incoherently.
  Quotations
  "She is in trance. Your daughter, sir, is a powerful medium." "A medium! You are raving."
  1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
3. (intransitive, followed by "about", "of" or (formerly) "on") To talk with excessive enthusiasm, passion or excitement.
  Quotations
  The hallowed scene / Which others rave on, though they know it not.
  1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], stanza LXII
  “A beautiful country!”“I suppose it is. Everybody says so.”“Your cousin Feenix raves about it, Edith,” interposed her mother from her couch.
  1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848
4. (obsolete) To rush wildly or furiously.
  Quotations
  Under a mightie rocke, gainst which do rave The roaring billowes in their proud disdaine
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
5. (intransitive) To attend a rave (dance party).
  Quotations
  The situation with Tommy's parents made me grateful my parents hadn't caught on to my partying that summer. How had I gotten away with raving every weekend, and sometimes on Thursday nights too?
  2021, Samantha Durbin, Raver Girl: Coming of Age in the 90s

rave²

/ɹeɪv/

noun
plural raves
1. One of the upper side pieces of the frame of a wagon body or a sleigh.

rave³

/ɹeɪv/

verb
1. (obsolete) simple past of rive

Definition of "rave"

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rave2

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rave¹

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