Talk:rag

Having 'Rags' is also a common euphemism for a woman having her period. -- 203.143.210.49 23:28, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

rag
Rod (A. Smith) 07:06, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
 * (slang) To drive a car or another vehicle in a hard, fast or unsympathetic manner.
 * I've heard it used in UK - "He was ragging down the motorway at 110 mph"--Keene 23:50, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Would you Ukogbanians say it has clearly widespread use?&mdash;msh210 &#x2120; 17:34, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
 * It's in use. It's not clear to me how widespread. Kappa 22:37, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I've never heard it (but I'm getting on a bit). SemperBlotto 22:40, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I added the definition- if it helps here are 2 uses of 'ragging' by motoring journalists; http://cars.uk.msn.com/News/car_news_article.aspx?cp-documentid=953723 "the sight of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May ragging a car to within an inch of its life", http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarreviews/62605/toyota_corolla_compressor.html "Hot hatch antics in the Compressor feel rather like ragging a hire car - engine screaming, chassis surprised and not entirely happy with the pace it's finding". 'Ragging' can also be used as an activity in itself- one can "go out for a rag"; that is, to leave with the intention of driving in a 'sporty' manner for the pleasure of the experience. 'Ragging' would always include an element of the unusual, 'testing' in some way the qualities (speed/acceleration/reliability) of the vehicle, or the skill of the driver. For example, driving an original Mini at 90mph would be considered 'ragging'. Driving a modern BMW at the same speed would not. 'Ragging' could also include faster than normal cornering, or indeed driving a car harshly at low speeds, eg using high revs or short bursts of hard acceleration. Low speed pleasure cruising, or normal journeys driven in a 'normal' manner would NOT be 'ragging'. Conversely, ragging would not necessarily involve driving in a reckless or inconsiderate manner- hard driving on a test track under controlled conditions would still be considered 'ragging'. Hope this helps.
 * Yes that does help. This looks like another one: The Independent  Mar 5, 2005 "By the time we climbed back on the skidoos I was getting pretty cocky, ragging the thing around at 70 miles an hour." Kappa 23:42, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, to rag, from my understanding means to do that with anything, e.g. a horse, motorcycle, a person etc. ... to roughen something up, to turn it into rags... just my 0.02 € worth...--BigBadBen 21:50, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Cited, (here, not on the page, which would be nice, but) I'm taking the liberty of removing the rfv-sense tag and declaring this RFV passed.&mdash;msh210 &#x2120; 22:58, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Just to let you know the term 'Ragg/Ragged/Ragging', is widely used where im from, central England-(warwickshire/Midlands). It's been in common use for longer than I can remember. Generally its a term used by people below the age of 40 -especially by self proclaimed "Petrolheads" {e.g;- 'I had to Ragg it past the bird in the skoda' / 'I ragged my car' / 'I love ragging it past slow mofos!!')

*word in common use (present) Nov2016
 * pronounced "ragg-D", not "ragg-ED"

RFC discussion: June 2012
rfc-senses: poker slang 'a card that appears to help no one' and 'a low card'. Neither of these are quite right in my opinion. Rags as a plural is often used in poker slang to mean 'poor cards'. I've never heard of it as a community card as a opposed to hole cards, but I'd like to try and find out if it does exist. So in summary, I'd like to merge these into one, more accurate definition which better fits actual human usage. Mglovesfun (talk) 12:20, 23 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The card that appears to help no one sense is real; I added one citation to Citations:rag and I've just found a second one. I don't feel like I need to add three citations as I was the one questioning it in the first place. Still... the two senses are really the same, it just so happens that low cards (ones with low numerical values) are unlikely to help anyone as player usually play high cards. Mglovesfun (talk) 22:11, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

Etymology 3: torment, banter
Chambers 1908 says: "Perh. from the previous word [i.e. another sense of rag]; others refer to Icelandic rægja, to calumniate; cognate with Anglo-Saxon wrégan, to accuse." Equinox ◑ 08:09, 28 October 2018 (UTC)

Collective noun for colts?
The book ‘An unkindness of ravens’ lists ‘rag’, ‘rage’ and ‘rake’ as collective nouns for colts. (Overlordnat1 (talk) 12:37, 13 October 2020 (UTC))