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rag

Pronunciation: /ɹæɡ/

The English word “rag” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Tattered clothes (clothing).
  2. A piece of old cloth, especially one used for cleaning, patching, etc.; a tattered piece of cloth; a shred or tatter.
  3. A shabby, beggarly person; synonym of ragamuffin.
  4. A ragged edge in metalworking.
  5. A sail, or any piece of canvas.
  6. Sanitary napkins, pads, or other materials used to absorb menstrual discharge.
  7. A newspaper or magazine, especially one whose journalism is considered to be of poor quality.
  8. A poor, low-ranking kicker.
  9. A curtain of various kinds.
  10. A person suffering from exhaustion or lack of energy.
  11. A banknote.
  12. An uneven vertical margin (of a block of type).
  13. A coarse kind of rock, somewhat cellular in texture; ragstone.

verb

  1. To decorate (a wall, etc.) by applying paint with a rag.
  2. To become tattered.
  3. To menstruate.
  4. To break (ore) into lumps for sorting.
  5. To cut or dress roughly, as a grindstone.
  6. To scold or tell off; to torment; to banter.
  7. To drive a car or another vehicle in a hard, fast, or unsympathetic manner.

Etymology

From Middle English ragge, from Old English ragg (suggested by derivative raggiġ (“shaggy; bristly; ragged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“tuft; shagginess”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-, probably related to *rūhaz. Cognate with Swedish ragg. Related to rug.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.