ˈshag-rag, a. and n. Now rare or Obs. exc. dial.
[A jingling alteration of shake-rag. Cf. shag n.4, shack-rag, shab-rag, shag-bag.]
A. adj. Of a person: Ragged, rascally.
| c 1590 Marlowe Jew of Malta iv. 1913 To haue a shag⁓rag knaue to come [etc.]. 1615 Band, Ruffe & Cuffe (Halliw.) 9 A scurvie shag-ragge gentleman new come out of the North, a punie, a freshman come up hither to learn fashions, and seeke to expell me? |
| transf. 1693 Bacchanalian Sessions 6 Upon which, in clean Vessel, not tatter'd and shagrag, Appears Rhenish, Hock, Old and Young, Moselle, and Backrag. |
b. Shaggy, unkempt.
| 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. v. 389 An old bruised and battered year-by-year..With shag-rag beard and doleful doublet. |
B. n. A ragged, disreputable person; a low rascally fellow.
| 1611 Chapman May Day Plays 1873 II. 340 I'de hire some shag-ragge or other for half a chickeene to cut's throat. 1611 Cotgr., Guerluset, (Somewhat like our Shagrag;) a by⁓word for a beggerlie souldior. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 69 Your poore Shag-rags, and silly snakes, that steale from the Armie to returne home. 1719 D'Urfey Pills II. 327 Sharks, Shagrags, Shatter-brains, Panders. 1829 Brockett N.C. Gloss. (ed. 2). 1881 Cumberld. Gloss. etc. |
b. shag rag and bobtail = tag rag and bobtail.
| 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. xxxiii, It will swallow us all, Ships and Men, Shag, Rag, and Bobtail, like a dose of Pills. 1762 Sterne Tr. Shandy V. i. 5 There was a good farcical house, large enough to hold..them, shag rag and bob-tail, male and female, all together. 1828 [Carr] Craven Gloss. II. 113 Shag-rag and bobtail. |