lose one's rag

Definitions

To become angry.

slang

Equivalents

Examples

“1928, Ethel May Dell, The Gate Marked "Private", G. P. Putnam's Sons, page 248, […] he could not have⟳ said wherefore. “She was dressed as a bride if you must know⟳,” he said. “But I don’t know⟳ what you’ve got to lose⟳ your rag about. She’s nothing to you.””

“c'''1934, in Famous Plays of 1933–1934, page 449, Doll: Well, I’ll be trotting along. Sorry I lost my rag with […]”

“1937, Arthur Calder-Marshall, Pie in the Sky, C. Scribner’s sons, page 315, […] home now and was I going to come⟳ with him or wasn’t I? And I lost my rag and said, no, it was his duty to take⟳ me home, not mine to take⟳ him.”

“1944, in William Boyd (Ed.), Evacuation in Scotland: A Record⟳ of Events and Experiments, University of London Press⟳, Ltd., page 187, There is frankness of discussion and remark⟳. For instance, it is quite usual for a visiting member of the staff to ask⟳, ‘How is your temper these days?’ The reply⟳ might be, ‘I haven’t lost my rag for a week,’ which is an achievement.”

“2006, Louise Rennison, Startled by His Furry Shorts, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 127–128, The last⟳ time I went to God’s house, Call-Me-Arnold lost his rag with me. Which is a bit un-Christian. After all, there was no real damage⟳ done vis-à-vis the elderly pensioner’s scarf inferno incident.”

“2007, Patricia Ferguson, Peripheral Vision, Solidus, →ISBN, page 295, ‘Come⟳ on, everyone loses their rag occasionally. It can’t be that bad. […] ’”

“E-mail alone didn't make⟳ the office passive-aggressive, as we were going that way anyway. It all started a couple of decades ago when the four great forces of modern office life, political correctness, HR, PR, and litigiousness, ruled that it was no longer acceptable to lose⟳ your rag.”

CEFR level