English Explanatory Dictionary

rag

English dictionary entry

Meanings

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).
verb
  1. To decorate (a wall, etc.) by applying paint with a rag.
  2. To become tattered.
  3. To menstruate.
noun
  1. A coarse kind of rock, somewhat cellular in texture; ragstone.
verb
  1. To break (ore) into lumps for sorting.
  2. To cut or dress roughly, as a grindstone.
verb
  1. To scold or tell off; to torment; to banter.
  2. To drive a car or another vehicle in a hard, fast or unsympathetic manner.
  3. To tease or torment, especially at a university; to bully, to haze.
noun
  1. A prank or practical joke.
  2. A society run by university students for the purpose of charitable fundraising.
noun
  1. An informal dance party featuring music played by African-American string bands.
  2. A ragtime song, dance or piece of music.
verb
  1. To play or compose (a piece, melody, etc.) in syncopated time.
  2. To dance to ragtime music.
  3. To add syncopation (to a tune) and thereby make it appropriate for a ragtime song.
noun
  1. Initialism of retrieval-augmented generation: a method of augmenting performance of LLMs (large language models) by serving them a curated selection of data input, via a combination of relevant data libraries and on-the-fly but relevant search results.
name
  1. Synonym of Rag and Famish (“the Army and Navy Club in London, England”).

Pronunciation

/ˈɹæɡ/ [ˈɹʷæɡ] en-us-rag.ogg /ˈɹeɪ̯ɡ/ [ˈɹʷeɪ̯ɡ]

Word forms

rag rags ragging ragged the Rag

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.

Synonyms

fish wrap rough beat thrash Rag and Famish

Derived words

bean rag boiled rag chew the rag cumrag cuntrag dishrag do-rag dustrag fag rag glad rags head rag in rag order in rags jam rag jizzrag lose one's rag main rag oily rag on the rag rag and bone man rag-and-bone man rag-and-bone shop ragazine ragbag rag bagger ragbond rag book rag-box rag-chewing rag doll ragfish ragged ragger raggie raggle raggy raghead raghorn raghouse ragleaf ragless raglike ragman rag paper ragpick ragpicker rag pudding rag race rag-roll rag-rolling rag rug rags and tatters ragseller rag-shop ragsorter ragsorting rags to riches rags-to-riches ragtag ragtop
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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