Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To mistreat or intimidate by bullying.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bully; badger; abuse or scold: as, “he bully-ragged me,”

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb Same as bullirag.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb to taunt someone

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb be bossy towards

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From dialectal ballarag.]

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Examples

  • "She is likely to scold and 'bullyrag' to her heart's content.

    Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret Alice B. Emerson

  • I managed to bullyrag giddoen into splitting the "Five Courses of Seafood," each of which takes over one of the five basic flavors hot, bitter, salty, sweet, sour for a harmonious and tasty balance of humours, or chi, or whatever version of malarkey they have in Vietnam.

    Kenneth Hite's Journal princeofcairo 2008

  • (Elspeth, I may tell you, speaks only English - well, Scotch, if you like - and enough nursery French to get her through Customs and bullyrag waiters, but anything the Queen said, however wild, always sent her into transports of approval.)

    Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990

  • (Elspeth, I may tell you, speaks only English — well, Scotch, if you like — and enough nursery French to get her through Customs and bullyrag waiters, but anything the Queen said, however wild, always sent her into transports of approval.)

    Flashman and the Mountain of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990

  • I had no business trying to bullyrag you into cooperating.

    Between Planets Heinlein, Robert A. 1951

  • And when she started to bullyrag you, it was all I could do -- But it won't last long now.

    Death at the Excelsior And Other Stories 1928

  • And maybe I'd 've come in to-day if the committee hadn't tried to bullyrag me, but, by God, as long as I'm a free-born independent American cit -- ''

    Babbitt 1922

  • And maybe I’d ’ve come in to-day if the committee hadn’t tried to bullyrag me, but, by God, as long as I’m a free-born independent American cit—”43

    Chapter 32 1922

  • Dared you break the crust and bullyrag 'em -- hot, fierce and angry, what wide beaks buzz plain

    Figures of Earth James Branch Cabell 1918

  • And wills fur it to live, and fights fur it to, and determines that it must, and jest natcherally tries fur to bullyrag death into going away.

    Danny's Own Story 1912

Comments

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  • Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize or ruffle the animals.

    (San Diego Zoo)

    April 3, 2008

  • Oh, why must her tongue unduly wag

    And flail like a scourge to cruelly nag?

    Her chosen life path

    Is unbridled wrath

    To hector and chide and bullyrag.

    June 8, 2018