# You're on Jeopardy! -- what's you're answer for this clue? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 26, 2009, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046 "2009-01-26T12:28:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/41 "2009-01-26T22:48:27Z")
I laughed when I read the clue, which probably would have prevented me from buzzing in fast enough. I thought of both answers almost simultaneously and recognized “rake” as the correct one ans “ho” as a red herring (deliberate, I’m sure, on the part of the writers). I make absolutely no claims about which answer, if any would have occured to me first ifI’d been on the show. I typically freeze momentarily under that kind of pressure. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/42 "2009-01-26T23:05:25Z")
> [@arseNal](#): > > You mean all these people in this thread aren’t actually more knowledgeable than Ken Jennings? Don’t know. There’s a big difference between true knowledge and being able to answer trivia questions correctly and fast. I’m proud of having been on that show, and I had a great time. But let’s not make more of it than it is - when it comes to Jeopardy people remember Alex Trebek, Ken Jennings and Sean Connery - and Connery was never on the show. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/43 "2009-01-26T23:06:10Z")
What is a rake? While I laughed when Ken said ‘ho’ in response, a) it never occurred to me, and b) I agree with everyone else on why it’s not a valid response to the clue - which is why point a. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/44 "2009-01-26T23:50:22Z")
Rake. ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/45 "2009-01-26T23:59:02Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > Hoe - IMO, the other meaning of “rake” is much less well-known nowadays than “ho”. Questions like that, where there is more than one plausible answer, should be struck out of a quiz by any decent question-master. Though I suppose they could argue that “hoe” and “ho” are homophones, not the same word like “rake” and “rake” are. > > There was a similar type of question at a recent quiz I attended: What word connects the game of golf to a part of a train? > > Could be any one of bunker, bogey, links, and probably others. > > They got around any problems by just marking as correct any reasonable answer. “Driver”, however, was disallowed as it is not actually part of a train. I would protest that one. At least steam engines have drive wheels and drive rods. [Drivers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_locomotive) are used in this context in the linked article. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_Astronaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bad\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/46 "2009-01-27T00:05:44Z")
When I read the OP the word “ho/hoe” popped into my head, but I assumed this was the joke answer based on the thread title. Also, “immoral pleasure seeker” seemed like an odd definition of “ho”. I didn’t know that meaning of rake though. I’m 25 and have a fairly good vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/47 "2009-01-27T00:10:05Z")
I thought of rake first, hoe second, and decided they probably wanted rake. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/48 "2009-01-27T00:35:54Z")
> [@1stFusilier](#): > > ho is absolutely **bang on**. (bolding mine) _snigger_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/49 "2009-01-27T00:47:44Z")
I would’ve answered rake without hesitation. In fact when I read the clue in the OP, it’s what occurred to me. I did not even think of hoe since it is not the same word as ho (as others have pointed out). ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/50 "2009-01-27T00:58:58Z")
A lot of people here seem to assume ho = whore = prostitute, and therefore is not really a pleasure seeker. But I think this is an outdated perception. Sure, a prostitute can be called a ho, but ho is really much more general a term that can simply mean “slut” (as another poster points out above), which would certainly qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/51 "2009-01-27T00:59:11Z")
“Rake” would have to be the correct answer, as “ho” is not actually a word; it’s slang for “whore”. HOWEVER: he asked for a “term”, not a “word”, so one could logically contest getting it wrong with “ho”. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/52 "2009-01-27T00:59:48Z")
I guess “Post Hole Digger” is just right out… ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/53 "2009-01-27T03:03:08Z")
My first thought was ho, then since you someone opened a thread on the subject gave I another thought and came up with rake. I’m going to say that people use the term ho to describe slutty behaviour, not just prostitution, so I think it’s a valid response ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/54 "2009-01-27T03:16:25Z")
Rake is a pleasure seeker, Ho is a pleasure _giver_. I had a dream a couple of weeks ago that seemed completely innocent. Until I thought about it. See, the guy I’m currently interest in and I were in the gardening section of a store because he wanted to plant a garden. I asked him if he needed a hoe, and he said no. I didn’t need a rake either. Then he asked me what I thought of the seed he was buying, and if I’d help him plant the garden… Once I thought about it, it didn’t seem so g-rated after all :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/55 "2009-01-27T03:29:51Z")
I’ve never heard of a rake being anything other than what you use to put leaves in a pile, and I’m kind of amazed that so many people thought of it first. And I think that ‘ho’ _came_ from ‘whore’, but is no longer exclusively confined to that meaning. ‘Ho’ can easily mean ‘slut’, though I will concede that ‘ho’ and ‘hoe’ are different words. > [@Chefguy](#): > > “Rake” would have to be the correct answer, as “ho” is not actually a word; it’s slang for “whore”. What now? Slang isn’t words? That’s news to me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/56 "2009-01-27T04:31:37Z")
Rake. Hoe didn’t occur to me until you posted it. ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/57 "2009-01-27T06:01:44Z")
I went “Huh?” when I heard it the first time, when I saw Ken Jennings on TV. So neither came to mind to me, though to be fair I didn’t have much time to think. I think the best thing about that answer was that Ken Jennings knew the word ho. Never would have thought it of him. 🙂 I guess I assumed he almost purposefully threw the question in order to make a joke, which also made me like him a bit more. I didn’t think that would be a serious answer, given that it’s a completely slang term, and doesn’t really fit the clue. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/58 "2009-01-27T06:15:31Z")
Rake seems the obvious answer. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/59 "2009-01-27T10:39:04Z")
I thought of “hoe,” & did not think of “rake.” And I think of “ho” as meaning “slut” not “pross.” ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046/60 "2009-01-27T13:50:21Z")
> [@tim-n-va](#): > > I would protest that one. At least steam engines have drive wheels and drive rods. [Drivers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_locomotive) are used in this context in the linked article. Fair comment, but I know the person who answered “driver”, and trust me, that was not what he was thinking of :). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-on-jeopardy-whats-youre-answer-for-this-clue/483046.md?page=4)