rag1 nounrag2 verb
ragrag1 /ræɡ/ ●○○ noun 
WORD ORIGINrag1
Origin:
1-4,6 1300-1400 Old Norse rögg ‘rough hairiness’5 1800-1900 ragtimeEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Just get a rag and wipe it up.
- Maple Leaf Rag
- That paper's nothing but a fascist rag.
- A wet finger or rag will smooth a caulked joint and leave a neat appearance.
- He put the rags be-tween my legs.
- I opened the window, stepped out on the ledge, and began to wash windowpanes with a rag.
- The smell of oil clung to her as strongly as it did to the rags in the van.
- The thin cake was hard and resistant as a frozen rag.
- This was how he remembered her, rather than as the cancer-pained rag doll he had nursed until her death.
- When I got back to the villa, I saw a red rag tied to the balcony.
WORD SETS
bin, nounbin liner, nounboil, verbborax, nounBrillo pad, nounbroom, nounbroomstick, nouncarpet sweeper, nounchar, verbchar, nouncharlady, nouncharwoman, nounchimney sweep, nouncleaner, nouncleanser, nounclothes basket, nounclothesline, nounclothes peg, nounconditioner, noundeodorize, verbdescale, verbdisinfect, verbdisinfectant, noundry-clean, verbdust, verbduster, noundustpan, nounfabric softener, nounfeather duster, nounflush, verbFrench polish, nounfumigate, verbhamper, nounHoover, nounhoover, verbhygiene, nounhygienic, adjectivekitchen roll, nounlaundry basket, nounlimescale, nounline, nounload, nounmangle, nounmop, nounmop, verbpolish, nounrag, nounrinse, verbrinse, nounsanitary, adjectivesanitation, nounscour, verbscourer, nounscrub, verbscrub, nounscrubbing brush, nounshampoo, nounsoak, verbsoak, nounsoapflakes, nounsoap powder, nounsoapsuds, nounsoapy, adjectivesoda, nounsoftener, nounspin, verbspin-dryer, nounsqueegee, nounstarch, verbsuds, nounswab, verbsweep, verbsweep, nounsweeper, nounsweepings, nounswill, verbswill, nountea cloth, nountea towel, nountide-mark, nounturpentine, nounturps, nounvacuum, nounvacuum, verbvacuum cleaner, nounwash, nounwashable, adjectivewashboard, nounwashcloth, nounwashday, nounwasher, nounwasher-dryer, nounwashing, nounwashing line, nounwashing machine, nounwashing powder, nounwashing soda, nounwashing-up, nounwashing-up liquid, nounwashtub, nounwhisk broom, nounwindow cleaner, nounwipe, verbwire wool, nounwring, verbwringer, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY
He writes for the local rag.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES the story of her rise from rags to riches (=from being poor to being rich)COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
He writes for the local rag. the story of her rise from rags to riches (=from being poor to being rich)· Put on the glad rags and go out and party, after that?· She changed out of her glad rags, tugged on old jeans and a sweatshirt and drove out to his house.· Her sister-in-law's glad rags were not very glad.
· I advertised in the local rag, but to no avail.· But that wretched Sandra would have had a field day too - her picture in the local rag in her best dress.· I can scour the local rags!
· The room was shuttered and smelt of oily rags and leather.· He backed off, wiping his hands on the oily rag, frowning.· The garage guy soon joined him, wiping an oily rag with his oily fingers.· She knew all about fire hazards. Oily rags never spent a night in our house.· He had found Bert giving the machine a final wipe over with an oily rag.· He fed it lots of oil and wiped at it all the time with an oily rag so it shone.· With an oily rag, rub the metal part.· Jim reached across and wiped his mate's forehead with an oily rag.
· When I got back to the villa, I saw a red rag tied to the balcony.· You saved the red rags for the center if you wanted it to look like that.· Behaviour which seems innocuous to one person can be a red rag to another.· Where you and I see blue blazers, the Manchester United captain sees a red rag.· That idea was already red rag enough to the old gentleman.· Such developments were, for Draper, red rag to a bull - hence his recourse to history for the counterattack.· His optimism was a red rag to the protesters.· Naturally this was like a red rag to a bull and I refused to even consider such a course of action.
· What a contrast to those wet rags she wore in the movie!· And it took you all your time to get them decent again with a wet rag.· Sometimes amateurs wrap wood in hot wet rags when they want to bend it.· I ran up to the guest room, stripped naked and washed myself with a wet rag.· It hung limply from the tubercular shoulders of its master like a wet rag on a cardboard donkey.· They're not all that good, but they're better than that soaking wet rag you're wearing now.· The unremitting four-mile ascent to the high pass over the ridge reduced me to a walking wet rag.
NOUN· This rag doll treatment of our things is great fun for him.· Maddened by the limp rag doll banging against his legs, he veered to the left.· This was how he remembered her, rather than as the cancer-pained rag doll he had nursed until her death.· He grabbed her collar, dragging her clear and across the mud like a life-size rag doll.· The second was propped, ungainly as a rag doll, against the far wall.· She looked like a rag doll.· Can't you see how obscene it is to get him dressed up and wheel him around like a big rag doll?· That was when Kleiber had given up the struggle and collapsed, limp and helpless as a rag doll.
· Petey watched him lift the suitcase off the bed and put it on the round rag rug.
· As a city it has a great deal to offer - especially to some one like myself who works in the rag trade.· No such inhibitions stunt the growth of the rag trade at the polar opposite point from the basking Sloanes.· Beware of an opportunist rag trade beginning to sell you recycled clothing under the guise of social awareness.· It can be adapted to clothing and Clarks intends to sell its expertise to the rag trade.· My wife is a business woman with two shops and I came out at the height of the rag trade jamborees.· The rag trade adopted the same approach when it came to designing and flogging its clobber.· And yet I didn't want to be consigned to the rag trade.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRYPHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES► the rag trade
1cloth [countable, uncountable] a small piece of old cloth, for example one used for cleaning things: - an old man in rags
- An old Rabari arrived, a skeleton in rags like all traveling pastoralists in this area.
- I was comforted when Matata showed me a Boer war rifle wrapped in rags in the bottom of the canoe.
- Is it formal, or can we attend in rags?
- She dressed Jane in rags to make her look bad to establish clearly the undesirability of another female in the house.
- The Rumanian or Andalusian peasant went in rags.
- The shift was an unbroken sixteen hours and the children were clothed in rags.
- There are areas where every child is in rags and learns to be a thief from the age of three.
- Two were very thin and dressed in rags.
- I used the analogy of a family that goes from rags to riches and back to rags in three or four generations.
- These he is at pains to hide in order to promote the fiction of his rise from rags to riches.
- Her sister-in-law's glad rags were not very glad.
- Put on the glad rags and go out and party, after that?
- She changed out of her glad rags, tugged on old jeans and a sweatshirt and drove out to his house.
- Bunny wasn't the only one to lose his temper.
- He obviously had impregnation on his mind, but by now Lydia had lost her temper and she told him to get stuffed.
- I should not have lost my cool and behaved in that manner.
- I then walked across to the photographers and lost my temper, lost my head.
- Never-absolutely never in my experience-did President Reagan really lose his temper or utter a rude or unkind word.
- She couldn't blame him for frightening Anna, for losing his temper with the child.
- That was plainly evident in the locker room, where Hostetler teetered on the brink of openly losing his temper.
- Why did he always choose to lose his temper over issues in which he was in the wrong?
- Naturally this was like a red rag to a bull and I refused to even consider such a course of action.
He wiped his boots dry with an old rag. an oily rag2newspaper [countable] informal a newspaper, especially one that you think is not particularly important or of good quality: He writes for the local rag.3in rags wearing old torn clothes: Children in rags begged money from the tourists.4from rags to riches becoming very rich after starting your life very poor: He likes to tell people of his rise from rags to riches. → rags-to-riches5music [countable] a piece of ragtime music6students’ event [countable] British English an event organized by students every year in order to make money for people who are poor, sick etc: rag week → glad rags at glad(7), → like a red rag to a bull at red1(5), → lose your rag at lose(11)rag1 nounrag2 verb
ragrag2 verb (past tense and past participle ragged, present participle ragging) [transitive] WORD ORIGINrag2
Origin:
1700-1800 Origin unknownVERB TABLE
rag
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | rag |
| he, she, it | rags | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | ragged |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have ragged |
| he, she, it | has ragged | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had ragged |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will rag |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have ragged |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am ragging |
| he, she, it | is ragging | |
| you, we, they | are ragging | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was ragging |
| you, we, they | were ragging | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been ragging |
| he, she, it | has been ragging | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been ragging |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be ragging |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been ragging |
EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
- A ragged halo of smoky-blue cloud wraps round the intense silver glow.
- Arsenal could easily have trebled their score as they ran Liverpool ragged in the second half.
- Brush on the dye, working with the grain, and rag off any excess.
- He lay naked on his back with the ragged stump of his leg pointing out the side door.
- Her voice sounded ragged from much weeping.
- There'd been a ragged reconciliation in the morning.
- Theresa tipped the can over; the squirrel, looking ragged, scooted toward liberation.
- Uncle Michael on a metal bed, cocooned in a fold of army blanket under mosquito netting, drawing ragged breaths.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES the story of her rise from rags to riches (=from being poor to being rich)
the story of her rise from rags to riches (=from being poor to being rich)PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES► the rag trade
British English old-fashioned to laugh at someone or play tricks on them SYN tease- Her sister-in-law's glad rags were not very glad.
- Put on the glad rags and go out and party, after that?
- She changed out of her glad rags, tugged on old jeans and a sweatshirt and drove out to his house.
- Bunny wasn't the only one to lose his temper.
- He obviously had impregnation on his mind, but by now Lydia had lost her temper and she told him to get stuffed.
- I should not have lost my cool and behaved in that manner.
- I then walked across to the photographers and lost my temper, lost my head.
- Never-absolutely never in my experience-did President Reagan really lose his temper or utter a rude or unkind word.
- She couldn't blame him for frightening Anna, for losing his temper with the child.
- That was plainly evident in the locker room, where Hostetler teetered on the brink of openly losing his temper.
- Why did he always choose to lose his temper over issues in which he was in the wrong?
- Naturally this was like a red rag to a bull and I refused to even consider such a course of action.