The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rag \Rag\, n. [OE. ragge, probably of Scand, origin; cf. Icel. r["o]gg a tuft, shagginess, Sw. ragg rough hair. Cf. Rug, n.]
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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.
--Milton.Not having otherwise any rag of legality to cover the shame of their cruelty.
--Fuller. -
pl. Hence, mean or tattered attire; worn-out dress.
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
--Dryden. -
A shabby, beggarly fellow; a ragamuffin.
The other zealous rag is the compositor.
--B. Jonson.Upon the proclamation, they all came in, both tag and rag.
--Spenser. (Geol.) A coarse kind of rock, somewhat cellular in texture.
(Metal Working) A ragged edge.
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A sail, or any piece of canvas. [Nautical Slang] Our ship was a clipper with every rag set. --Lowell. 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-mach['e] and wall papers. Rag wheel.
A chain wheel; a sprocket wheel.
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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.
Usage examples of "rag carpet".
Once they'd gotten upstairs, he'd made speedy work of removing his clothes and hers and showing her too quickly on the rag carpet just inside the bedroom door how great his need for her was.
Once in the room he put the trap down again and rearranged the rag carpet he had shoved out of place.
It had a plain rag carpet on the floor, hard business - like chairs, and a sickly fire.
The floors were covered with matting and the hall laid with a thin rag carpet.
He looked impatiently around the low-pitched room with the rag carpet and exposed beams and comer-posts, and smiled only when the orchard boughs scratched at the leaded panes of the rear window.
She sat on the thick rag carpet in front of me, pulled off my boots, and started to rub my feet.
The woman opened to him the door of a little parlor, covered with a rag carpet, where stood a table with a very shining black oil-cloth, sundry lank, high-backed wood chairs, with some plaster images in resplendent colors on the mantel-shelf, above a very dimly-smoking grate.