Rag
Rag (rag) , transitive verb
[Compare Icelandic ragja to calumniate, Old High German ruogen to accuse, German rugen to censure, Anglo-Saxon wrēgan, Gothic wrōhjan to accuse.]
To scold or rail at; to rate; to tease; to torment; to banter. [Provincial English] — Pegge
Rag , noun
[Old English ragge, probably of Scand, origin; compare Icelandic rogg a tuft, shagginess, Swedish ragg rough hair. Compare Rug, n.]
1.
A piece of cloth torn off; a tattered piece of cloth; a shred; a tatter; a fragment.
Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tossed,
And fluttered into rags.
Not having otherwise any rag of legality to cover the shame of their cruelty.
2.
Hence, mean or tattered attire; worn-out dress.
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
3.
A shabby, beggarly fellow; a ragamuffin.
The other zealous rag is the compositor.
Upon the proclamation, they all came in, both tag and rag.
4.
(Geology) A coarse kind of rock, somewhat cellular in texture.
5.
(Metal Working) A ragged edge.
6.
A sail, or any piece of canvas. [Nautical Slang]
Our ship was a clipper with every rag set.
Collocations (5)
Rag bolt , an iron pin with barbs on its shank to retain it in place.
Rag carpet , a carpet of which the weft consists of narrow strips of cloth sewed together, end to end.
Rag dust , fine particles of ground-up rags, used in making papier-maché and wall papers.
Rag wheel , (a) A chain wheel; a sprocket wheel (b) A polishing wheel made of disks of cloth clamped together on a mandrel.
Rag wool , wool obtained by tearing woolen rags into fine bits, shoddy.
Rag (rag) , intransitive verb
To become tattered. [Obsolete]
Rag , transitive verb
1.
To break (ore) into lumps for sorting.
2.
To cut or dress roughly, as a grindstone.
Rag , transitive verb
1.
(Music) To play or compose (a piece, melody, etc.) in syncopated time. [Colloquial]
2.
To dance to ragtime music, esp. in some manner considered indecorous. [Colloquial or Slang]