Meaning of Rag | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A coarse kind of rock, somewhat cellular in texture; ragstone.
   countable, uncountable
2. A prank or practical joke.
   dated
3. An informal dance party featuring music played by African-American string bands.
   US, obsolete
4. Tattered clothes (clothing).
   especially, in-plural
5. 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.
   abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
6. Synonym of Rag and Famish (“the Army and Navy Club in London, England”).
   UK, obsolete, slang
7. A society run by university students for the purpose of charitable fundraising.
   Ireland, UK
8. A ragtime song, dance or piece of music.
9. A piece of old cloth, especially one used for cleaning, patching, etc.; a tattered piece of cloth; a shred or tatter.
10. A shabby, beggarly person; synonym of ragamuffin.
    derogatory
11. A ragged edge in metalworking.
12. A sail, or any piece of canvas.
    slang
13. Sanitary napkins, pads, or other materials used to absorb menstrual discharge.
    plural, singular, slang
14. A newspaper or magazine, especially one whose journalism is considered to be of poor quality.
    derogatory, slang
15. A poor, low-ranking kicker.
16. A curtain of various kinds.
    slang
17. A person suffering from exhaustion or lack of energy.
    dated
18. A banknote.
    obsolete, slang
19. An uneven vertical margin (of a block of type).

Equivalents

Examples

“—What a pretty dress! —What, this old rag?”

“It's semiformal. I can't show up dressed in rags!”

“rags to riches”

“And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.”

“Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, toss'd, / And flutter'd into rags; then reliques, beads,”

“[…]even by the law of their own might and malice, not having otherwise any rag of legality to cover the shame of their cruelty.”

“For upon the like Proclamation there, they all came in, both tag and rag”

“The other zealous rag is the compositor, / Who in an angle where the ants inhabit, / (The emblems of his labors) will sit curl'd”

“Nor will it be achieved by marching in the streets in leather, drag, chains, fish net over-flying-tits or any other get up. It will not be accomplished by hung-over bar rags, hustlers, shallow queens, or angry dykes.”

“Our ship was a clipper, with every rag set, stunsails, sky-scrapers, and all.”

“"'Oh yes, that's all very well, but we haven't done with it yet,' said the lad, 'we shall have it worse directly,' and he ordered them to furl every rag but the mizen."”

“"It's heaviest on the first day, which might be why it hurts so much. After that, it slows down and eventually stops, but you'll need the rags for about a week."”

“"You must behave yourself, dear. Mr. Malone is a Pressman. He will have it all in his rag to-morrow, and sell an extra dozen among our neighbors."”

“I have ace-four on my hand. In other words, I have ace-rag.”

“"It took it out of me, though. I'm a rag this morning." "They work you too hard, dear."”

“What was he at, do you think? Counting bank-notes; he had bundles of them. […] Well, Guv'nor, he stood up by-and-by, and taking the bundles of rags, the big uns in one hand, tother ones in tother, he toddled out of the room; […] So I tucked my violin under my arm, and sallied out after the old budgy ragman, determined to ease him of his load at the very first lonesome corner I could track him to.”

“We always leave rag on article typeset for the web.”

“the three walls around the garden, each one of thirty-three feet, were built out of three layers of stone — pebble stone, flint and rag stone.”

“The rascal winked and grinned. 'There are always and means,' said he. 'But don't blame your foreman. He thought it was just a rag. I swapped clothes with his assistant, and in I came.'”

“Well, it’s only a rag, isn’t it?”

“Moreover, the effectiveness of RAG might decrease if the knowledge base becomes “polluted” by LLM-generated content.”

CEFR level