Dictionary
rag
Pronunciation: (rag), [key]—
n.
1. a worthless piece of cloth, esp. one that is torn or worn.
2. rags,ragged or tattered clothing:
The tramp was dressed in rags.
3. any article of apparel regarded deprecatingly or self-deprecatingly, esp. a dress:
It's just an old rag I had in the closet.
4. a shred, scrap, or fragmentary bit of anything.
5. Informal.
a. something of very low value or in very poor condition.
b. a newspaper or magazine regarded with contempt or distaste:
Are you still subscribing to that rag?
6. a person of shabby or exhausted appearance.
7. a large roofing slate that has one edge untrimmed.
8. chew the rag. See
chew (def. 9).
9. from rags to riches, from extreme poverty to great wealth:
He went from rags to riches in only three years. rag
Pronunciation: (rag), [key]
—v., ragged, rag•ging,
—n.
Informal.
—
v.t.
1. to scold.
2. to subject to a teasing, esp. in an intense or prolonged way (often fol. by
on):
Some of the boys were ragging on him about his haircut.
3. Brit.to torment with jokes; play crude practical jokes on.
—
n.
Brit.an act of ragging.
rag
Pronunciation: (rag), [key]—
v.t., ragged, rag•ging.
to break up (lumps of ore) for sorting. [1870–75; orig. uncert.]
rag
Pronunciation: (rag), [key]
—n., v., ragged, rag•ging.
—
n.
a musical composition in ragtime:
a piano rag.
—
v.t.
to play (music) in ragtime.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
