⇨ Rafferty's rules; Rafferty rulesnoun an entire lack of rules altogether. From the Irish surname Rafferty, with the implication that the Irish were unruly. Connection with the Northumberland dialect word raffety 'irregular; applied by sinkers to stratified deposits', and the Lincolnshire term raffatory 'refractory' (see English Dialect Dictionary), amount to nothing more than hopeful guesswork AUSTRALIA, 1918