an execution: scrag-boy
the hangman; scragging-post (scrag-squeezer or scrag) = the gallows; scragg-'em fair = a public execution (Grose, Parker, Vaux).
d. 1555. Lyndsay, Thrie Estaitis [E. E. T. S., 4031]. Allace! Maister, ye hurt my crag.
1579. Spenser, Shep. Calendar, Feb., 89. Thy Ewes that woont to haue blowen bags, Like wailefull widdowes hangen their crags.
1653. Middleton, Changeling, i. 2. The devil put the rope about her crag.
1780. Tomlinson, Slang Pastoral, 10. What Kiddy's so rum as to get himself scragg'd.
c. 1787. Kilmainham Minit [Ireland Sixty Years Ago, 88]. But if dat de slang you run sly, The scrag-boy may yet be outwitted, And I scout again on de lay.
1820. London Mag., I. 26. The scragging-post must have been his fate.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, lxxxiii. If he pikes we shall all be scragged.
1829. The Lag's Lament [Vidocq's Mem., iii. 169]. Snitch on the gang, that'll be the best vay To save your scrag.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, v. i. I wish I was as certain of my reward as that Turpin will eventually figure at the scragging-post.
1836. Milner, Turpin's Ride to York, i. 3. I shall never come to the scragging-post, unless you turn topsman.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Leg. So out with your whinger at once And scrag Jane, while I spiflicate Johnny.
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, xviii. Indicating, by a lively pantomimic representation, that scragging and hanging were one and the same thing.
1843. Moncrieff, Scamps of London, ii. 3. He was three times lagged, and werry near scragged.
1883. D. Telegraph, 7 August, 6, 2. His waistcoat was of the tight up round the scrag pattern.
1887. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip. Until the squeezer nips your scrag, Booze and the blowens cop the lot.
1893. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 61. A crusher's 'ard knuckles a crunching yer scrag.
1900. Kipling, Stalky & Co., 46. Don't drop oil over my 'Fors,' or I'll scrag you.
2. (colloquial).—A raw-bones. Hence scraggy = lean; thin (Grose).
3. (Shrewsbury School).—See quot.
1881. Pascoe, Public Schools. The highest mark is twenty with a cross . . . and so down to a huge duck's egg and a rent across the paper entitled a scrag.
To scrag a lay, verb. phr. (old).—'To steal clothes put on a hedge to dry' (Tufts); to go snowy-hunting (q.v.).
Scragg's Hotel, subs. phr.
(tramps').—See quot.
1886. D. Telegraph, 1 Jan., 1. It looked very much as though we should be obliged to put up at Scragg's Hotel—the Work'us, if you like it better.
Scramble, subs. (common).—A
feed of any kind: usually with
a qualifying subs.: as tea-scramble,
muffin-scramble,
toffee-scramble, &c.
1901. Troddles, 46. 'Rats! . . . didn't you ever have a toffee scramble?'
Scran, subs. (beggars').—(1) Food:
spec. broken victuals; (2) =
refuse; also (3, military) = a
meal. Hence scran-bag = a
haversack, or tommy-bag (q.v.);
on the scran = begging. Bad
scran to ye! (Irish) = a mild
malediction.
1724. Harper, Frisky Moll's Song [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 41.?] But ere for the scran he had tipt the cole, The Harman he came in.
1821. Egan, Life in London, 207. If you open your peepers you'll go without scran.
