ragged staff
[ragged a.1 2.]
1. A staff with projecting stumps or knobs; chiefly in reference to the badge or crest of the Earls of Warwick.
| 1449 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 222 The Bere..hath lost his ragged staffe. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 73 The pepulle sayd dyvers that ther was the ragyd staffe. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, v. i. 203 Old Neuils Crest, The rampant Beare chain'd to the ragged staffe. 1685 Temple Ess., Gardens Wks. 1731 I. 185 [Vines] should be left but like a Ragged Staff, not above two or three Eyes at most upon the Bearing Branches. 1778 Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2) s.v. Penrith, A town-house..beautified with bears climbing up a ragged staff. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Aristocracy Wks. (Bohn) II. 78 The black ragged staff, his badge. |
2. Naut. (See quot.)
| 1805 W. Hunter in Naval Chron. XIII. 13, I was one day watering at the ragged Staff. [Note. So called from the Stump Mast..fitted into the Launch, when sent to get water, in order to hoist the Casks in and out.] |