c.1861-5. Maj. Downing's Letters, 93. We have killed Calhoun and Biddle; but there is a raft of fellows to put down yet.
1886. Phil. Times, 24 Oct. This last spring a raft of them [serving girls] was out of employment.
Rag, subs. (old).—Generic: (1) in
pl. = clothes, old or new; whence
(2), in sing. = a tatterdemalion,
a ragamuffin, anyone despicable
and despised; and (3) anything
made out of textile stuff (as a
handkerchief, shirt, undergrad's
gown, newspaper, and exercise-
[or examination-]paper). Hence
TAG- (or SHAG-) RAG-AND-BOB-tail
(or FAG end) = one and
all, the common people (Grose,
1785); tag-rag = tattered, villainous,
poor, disreputable; rag-mannered
= violently vulgar;
raggery = duds, esp. women's:
Fr. chiffons; rag-bag (or rag-doll)
= a slattern; rag-trade
= (1) tailoring, (2) dressmaking,
and (3) the dry-goods trade
in general; rag-stabber = a
tailor, a snip (q.v.); rag-tacker
= (1) a dressmaker, and (2) a
coach-trimmer; rag-sooker (or
seeker) = see quot. 1878; rags-and-jags
= tatters; to have
TWO SHIRTS AND A RAG = to be
comfortably off (Ray, 1760); to
tip one's rags a gallop = to
move, depart, get out; to get
one's rag (or shirt) out =
(1) to bluster, and (2) to get
angry; TO RAG out = (1) to
dress, to clobber up (q.v.);
and (2) to show the white rag:
see White Feather.
1535. Bygod [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 481. Bygod has 'your fathers were wyse, both tagge and rag'; that is one and all].
1542. Udall, Apoph. Eras. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 484. Phrases like . . . not a rag to hang about him. . .].
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis [Arber], 21. Thee northen bluster aproching Thee sayls tears tag rag.
1597. Shakspeare, Richard III., v. 3. These overweening rags of France. Ibid. (1610), Coriolanus, iii. 4. Will you hence Before the tag return.
1597. Heywood, Timon [Five Plays in One, p. 10]. I am not of the raggs or fagg end of the people.
1623. Jonson, Time Vindicated. The other zealous ragg is the compositor.
1659-60. Pepys, Diary, 6 Mar. The dining-room was full of tag-rag-and-bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking.
1698. Collier, Eng. Stage, 220. This young lady swears, talks smut, and is . . . just as rag-mannered as Mary the Buxsome.
16[?]. Nursery Rhyme. Hark, hark! the dogs do bark, The Beggars come to town, Some in rags, and some in jags, And some in velvet gowns.
1706. Ward, Wooden World, 73. While he has a Rag to his Arse, he scorns to make use of a Napkin.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. Lady Answ. Pray, is he not rich? Ld. Sparkish. Ay, a rich Rogue, Two Shirts and a Rag.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 166. A sorry rag of a cassock. Ibid., 173. A band of robbers . . . left us not a rag but what we carry on our backs.
1785. Wolcot [Works (1812), I. 80]. Tagrags and Bobtails of the sacred Brush.
1800. Colquhoun, Comm. Thames, ii. 75. That lowest class of the community who are vulgarly denominated the Tag-Rag and Bobtail.
1811. Moore, Tom Crib, 27. One of Georgy's bright ogles was put On the bankruptcy list, with its shop-windows shut; While the other soon made quite as TAG-RAG a show.
C.1819. Old Song:, 'The Young Prig, [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896). 82. Frisk the cly, and fork the rag.
1820. Byron, Blues, ii. 23. The rag, tag and bobtail of those they call 'Blues.'
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxxv. We don't take in no tagrag and bobtail at our house.
