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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

scragged adj.

1. hanged.

1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 20: Topp’d, alias Scragg’d, alias Hang’d.
1756		W. Toldervy Hist. of the Two Orphans III 111: Scragg’d, said she, is being hung in chains.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxix: To be Topp’d or Scragg’d To be Hang’d.
1780		R. Tomlinson Sl. Pastoral 11: What kiddy’s so rum as to get himself scragged.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 26: Ah, Dummie, if little Paul should be scragged!
1840		R. Barham ‘The Dead Drummer’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 208: The Sergeant, in spite of his ‘Gammon,’ got ‘scragg’d’.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 24 Feb. 3/1: She gave him a fat one on the chops, if she was to be scragged tor it.
1852		Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: Tom croaked like a cracksman — that is, he was scragged.
1853		C.R. Read What I Heard, Saw, and Did 11: My one-eyed acquaintance asked [...] ‘whether he thought poor Bill so-and-so, as the traps had catched, would get scragged, and if so, if he would get turned off at Bathurst or Sydney?’.
1861		M.E. Braddon Trail of the Serpent 44: Shouldn’t I like to see that there young man as killed his uncle, scragged, that’s all.
1870		Sheffield Dly Teleg. (Yorks) 28 May 3/5: If I am proved guilty I shall be scragged (hung), but dont let them knock me about.
1882		‘Blooming Aesthetic’ in Rag 30 Sept. n.p.: A pay-on-the-nod, / An always-in-quod, / A sure-to-be-scragged young man.
1894		‘Price Warung’ Tales of the Early Days 130: If any lives were lost in the surf, ’twouldn’t be Freeman’s or Hansen’s. They’re both bound to be scragged.
1910		D. Stewart Tragedy of the White House in Illus. Police News 10 Sept. 12/1: ‘Blustering Bill [...] is snide (bad) to the core and if ever a man deserved to be scragged he does’.

2. killed; dead.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 June 8/1: Later on, when the bad woman has cleaned him out and left him without the price of a drink, and he is in danger of being ‘scragged’ as well, she explains the old mystery, and the hero kicks himself at the top of his voice.
1908		Magnet 7 Mar. 11: Why, the ungrateful brute ought to be scragged!
1931		D. Runyon ‘The Lily of St Pierre’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 135: It is a terrible blow to many people when he is scragged.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 38: Other convict terms that are either still with us or have only relatively recently dropped include: [...] queer, racket, scragged, screw.

In exclamations

I’ll be scragged! [var. on I’ll be hanged! under hang v.¹]

a general excl. of surprise, annoyance or impatience.

1756

W. Toldervy Hist. of the Two Orphans III 63: Why! if he has not lost the bag again, I’ll be scragg’d!