▪ I. ˈragging, vbl. n.1 rare—1.
[f. rag v.1]
concr. Ragged edges or projections.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xvi, To Justifie the Mold, and clear it from Ragging. |
▪ II. ˈragging, vbl. n.2
[f. rag v.2]
The action of scolding, annoying, etc.; an instance of this. Also attrib.
| 1796 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3) s.v. Rag, She gave him a good ragging. 1888 E. Dowson Let. Nov. (1967) 19 After a good deal of ragging with Chitty J. two days ago, the affair was settled. 1893 Daily News 25 Sept. 5/3 Commemoration Week exercises at Oxford furnished..the most audacious examples of ‘ragging’. 1899 T. M. Ellis Three Cat's-eye Rings 114 What a ragging we should get! 1920 Chambers's Jrnl. 1 May 337/1 An ugly ragging mood was astir. 1932 Daily Tel. 8 Oct. 12/4 Ragging in the army, such as we have at home (this was said just after one of the so-called ‘ragging scandals’ in the Guards) would be impossible here. 1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 2 May 31, I miss the comradeship, the ragging, the talks in Mess. |
▪ III. ragging, vbl. n.3
[f. rag v.3]
1. (See quot. and cf. rag v.3)
| 1875 Ure's Dict. Arts II. 78 Ragging..consists simply in reducing the stones to a smaller size, and rejecting as many of the sterile stones as can be readily picked out. |
| attrib. 1875 Ure's Dict. Arts II. 76 The ragging hammer should..be brought into free requisition. 1878 Ibid. IV. (Suppl.) 618 Steel ragging sledge, 7lb. weight. |
2. Ore of a certain class (see quots.). Also pl.
| 1860 C. Tomlinson Useful Arts & Manuf. 2nd Ser. Dressing ores 10 That portion [of a dredging] occupying the bottom of the sieve, called ragging, which is also in a marketable state. 1878 Ure's Dict. Arts IV. (Suppl.) 618 The ores are divided into four classes: (1) Cobbed ore; (2) Sieve raggings; (3) Fine Raggings; (4) Slimes. 1890 Lock Mining & Ore-dressing Mach. 395 The mixed product of the jiggers..called chatts or ragging, must be separately treated. |
3. = straggling vbl. n.2
| 1850 [see straggling vbl. n.2]. |
▪ IV. ˈragging, vbl. n.4 orig. U.S.
[f. rag v.5]
The act or practice of playing, singing, or dancing in ragtime.
| 1899 [see rag n.5 1]. 1913 Collier's Mag. 15 Feb. 6/2 The worst of these dance halls..are habitually frequented by people of the fashionable and so-called decent class, who go..for the purpose of joining in the ‘ragging’. 1914 ‘High Jinks, Jr.’ Choice Slang 17 Ragging, the act of doing the ‘Rag’. 1936 Harper's Mag. 3 Apr. 570/2 ‘Jamming’, ‘cat⁓time’, ‘swing’, ‘riffing’, ‘getting off’, ‘going to town’, ‘ragging’, ‘gut-bucketing’,..are names for the hot performance, which is the heart and soul of jazz. 1958 Life (Internat. ed.) 13 Oct. 96/2 The rhythm was called ragtime (after a Negro clog dance sometimes called ‘ragging’). |