| 释义 |
ˈrag-bag, n.
1. a. A bag in which rags or scraps of cloth are collected or stored.
1820M. Wilmot Let. 7 Aug. (1935) 76 Well, and well and well, what have I got to say in my ragbag of a brain? I have a hundred odds and ends. 1850Dickens Dav. Copp. xlviii. 490 Sheets in the rag-bag. 1853C. Brontë Villette I. ix. 174 Your mind..seems..chaotic as a rag-bag. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. xl, An animated rag-bag whom she called her niece. 1873M. E. Braddon Str. & Pilgr. iii. xii. 360 Her brain was..a chaos of many-coloured scraps and shreds, like a good house-keeper's rag-bag. 1884Cassell's Fam. Mag. Feb. 155/1 Many people..would..be surprised if they could see the contents of a rag-bag. 1917E. Pound Lustra 181 And that the ‘modern world’ Needs such a rag⁓bag to stuff all its thought in. 1964A. Sexton Sel. Poems 57, I hid in the kitchen under the ragbag.
b. transf. and fig. A motley collection. Also spec. a sloppily-dressed woman, a slattern. slang.
1864Lowell Wks. (1890) V. 156 The Convention was a rag-bag of dissent. 1885A. Dale Jonathan's Home 108 That indescribable medley of houses, a ragbag of dwellings. 1888Kipling Under Deodars 70 If I were a man I would perish sooner than be seen with that rag-bag. 1937Partridge Dict. Slang 683/2 Rag-bag,..a slattern. 1973‘W. Haggard’ Old Masters vi. 75 Lord Tokenhouse was no sort of economist, indeed he despised the whole ragbag whole-heartedly. 1976P. Cave High Flying Birds iii. 31 She was neither attractive nor plain; not a raver or a ragbag. 1980Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Feb. 149/2 The design courses are in danger by their very existence of joining Art, Music and Technical Drawing in the ragbag of the system.
2. attrib.
1907Daily Chron. 13 Mar. 8/4 The association of wealth and rag-bag poverty in London is one of her most remarkable features. 1948Life 13 Sept. 152/2 In the old days..some of them little ‘rag-bag’ shows used to carry a lot of grift. 1953S. Kauffmann Philanderer vi. 104 The living-room, with its rag-bag summer cottage furnishings. 1968Listener 31 Oct. 583/2 There is certain to be some inherent weakness in the direction of generalisation and ‘rag-bag’ proliferation of studies that I deplore. 1980Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Feb. 154/1 That is what I call the ragbag attitude. |