Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To criticize or scold (someone).
- transitive verb To criticize or complain about (something).
- transitive verb To tease or taunt (someone).
- transitive verb Chiefly British To play a joke on.
- transitive verb Sports In ice hockey, to maintain possession of (the puck) by outmaneuvering opposing players, especially so as to kill a penalty.
- noun A practical joke; a prank.
- transitive verb To compose or play (a piece) in ragtime.
- noun A piece written in ragtime.
- noun A roofing slate with one rough surface.
- noun Chiefly British A coarsely textured rock.
- noun A scrap of cloth.
- noun A piece of cloth used for cleaning, washing, or dusting.
- noun Threadbare or tattered clothing.
- noun Cloth converted to pulp for making paper.
- noun A scrap; a fragment.
- noun Slang A newspaper, especially one specializing in sensationalism or gossip.
- noun The stringy central portion and membranous walls of a citrus fruit.
- idiom (on the rag) Menstruating.
- idiom (on the rag) Irritable; grouchy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In botany: The pithy axis and the membranes separating the sections of the orange and other citrus fruits.
- noun A coat; a tunic: army slang in India in the last century; still used. Also
raggie (which see). - noun An abbreviation of
raginee . - noun In Oxford University, a noisy, disorderly outbreak, in violation of established regulations: originally peculiar to English university life.
- To become ragged; fray: with out.
- To dress; deck one's self: in the phrase to rag out, to dress in one's best.
- To make ragged; abrade; give a ragged appearance to, as in the rough-dressing of the face of a grindstone.
- In mining, to separate by ragging or with the aid of the ragging-hammer. See
ragging , 2. - To banter; badger; rail at; irritate; torment. Compare
bullyrag . - noun A sharp or jagged fragment rising from a surface or edge: as, a rag on a metal plate; hence, a jagged face of rock; a rocky headland; a cliff; a crag.
- noun A rock having or weathering with a rough irregular surface.
- noun In botany:
- noun A lichen, Sticta pulmonaria (see
hazel-crottles ). - noun Another lichen, Parmelia saxatilis (stone-rag).
- noun A catkin of the hazel, or of the willow, Salix caprea. Also
raw . - noun A torn, worn, or formless fragment or shred of cloth; a comparatively worthless piece of any textile fabric, either wholly or partly detached from its connection by violence or abrasion: as, his coat was in
rags ; cotton and linen rags are used to make paper, and woolen rags to make shoddy. - noun A worn, torn, or mean garment; in the plural, shabby or worn-out clothes, showing rents and patches.
- noun Any separate fragment or shred of cloth, or of something like or likened to it: often applied disparagingly or playfully to a handkerchief, a flag or banner, a sail, the curtain of a theater, a newspaper, etc.
- noun Figuratively, a severed fragment; a remnant; a scrap; a bit.
- noun A base, beggarly person; a ragamuffin; a tatterdemalion.
- noun A farthing.
- noun A herd of colts.
- noun In type-founding, the bur or rough edge left on imperfectly finished type.
- Made of or with rags; formed from or consisting of refuse pieces or fragments of cloth: as, rag pulp for paper-making; a rag carpet.
- In U. S. political slang, the paper currency of the government; greenback money: so called with reference to the contention of the Greenback party, before and after the resumption of specie payments in 1879, in favor of making such money a full legal tender for the national debt and all other purposes.
- noun A drizzling rain.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rag.
Examples
-
She looked very charming and imposing in her evening dress, but when Betty ventured to admire it she was informed that it was "A rag, my dear -- a prehistoric _rag_!" and warned that at any moment the worn-out fabric might be expected to fly asunder, when "As you love me, fling yourself upon me, and _hurl_ me from the room!
Betty Trevor George de Horne Vaizey 1887
-
Few sounds are more distinct in their kind, or one would think more likely to be vocally reproduced in the word which signified them, than that of a swift rent in strongly woven cloth; and the English word 'rag' and ragged, with the Greek [Greek: rhêgnumi], do indeed in a measure recall the tormenting effect upon the ear.
Proserpina, Volume 1 Studies Of Wayside Flowers John Ruskin 1859
-
A piece of rag is then dipped into native dye made from tree-bark, and well rubbed over the cloth.
-
The rag is bankrolled by an alien who's finances may have been Persiled but still left with a stain afterwards.
Will Iain Dale have to repay the donations ? Norfolk Blogger 2009
-
That bloody rag is beyond the pale. on February 8, 2010 at 7: 14 pm Charles Maitland
Why front-line police officers are glad about Dizaei « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2010
-
Flurry's cult that publishes the rag is called Philadelphia Church of God.
-
Just because they are new and every rag is buzzing over them doesn't mean I want to run out and buy one.
-
Grip-n-Grin tip #12: Always remember to wet the fish BEFORE setting the shot or your subject will look ridiculous while you are getting a wet rag from the break room.
-
Just because they are new and every rag is buzzing over them doesn't mean I want to run out and buy one.
-
Grip-n-Grin tip #12: Always remember to wet the fish BEFORE setting the shot or your subject will look ridiculous while you are getting a wet rag from the break room.
-
Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) is a strategy that helps address both of these issues, pairing information retrieval with a set of carefully designed system prompts to anchor LLMs on precise, up-to-date, and pertinent information retrieved from an external knowledge store.
Retrieval augmented generation: Keeping LLMs relevant and current - Stack Overflow Manny Silva 2023
-
Enter retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG. RAG is a technique used to augment an LLM with external data, such as your company documents, that provide the model with the knowledge and context it needs to produce accurate and useful output for your specific use case.
Retrieval-augmented generation, step by step Nitin Borwankar 2024
colleen commented on the word rag
"1.Music. To play or compose (a piece, melody, etc.) in syncopated time. Colloq. 2. To dance to ragtime music;--often used with an implication of indecorum. Colloq. or Slang."
December 14, 2006
IndiaAmos commented on the word rag
"In typography, “rag” refers to the irregular or uneven vertical margin of a block of type. Usually it’s the right margin that’s ragged (as in the commonly seen flush left/rag right setting), but either or both margins can be ragged." (http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Articles/fyti/RagsWidowsOrphans.htm)
February 26, 2009
Prolagus commented on the word rag
Song quotation on slutty.
August 20, 2009
slumry commented on the word rag
highlighting this Century definition:
n. In Oxford University, a noisy, disorderly outbreak, in violation of established regulations: originally peculiar to English university life.
July 27, 2015