Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus. prison) a member of the lowest level of the prison hierarchy.

1881		Gundagai Times (NSW) 11 Nov. 2/3: There is a prison aristocracy as well as a common mob, and ‘toe-raggers’ (men living on ‘a spud a day’).
1886		Sydney Morn. Herald 6 Aug. 4/4: One individual is what is called in the gaol a ‘toe-ragger,’ or one of those wretched looking creatures whose clothes are in rags and thickly bespattered with evil smelling loathsomeness [...] and whose attenuated bodv is scored all over with the blood marks which are caused by [...] their never ending scratching to obtain relief from the tormenting presence of vermin.
1894		Armidale Exp. (NSW) 15 June 3/3: The common ‘toe-ragger’ brings up the swell’s washing, and respectfully addresses his customer.

2. one who is given a short prison sentence, three to six months.

1884		Qld Figaro (Brisbane) 26 July 30/1: ‘Short-timers’ or those unfortunate prisoners whose stay will not exceed a period of six months [...] are known also under this distinguishing term of ‘toe-raggers’.
1889		Aus. Star (Sydney) 11 Jan. 5/7: ‘Toe-raggers.’ — Thomas Malin, and Kate Walpole, representatives of the do-nothing-but-drink-if-I-know-it profession, retired for three months [...] at hard labour.
1918		V. Marshall Jail From Within (1969) 45: Christ Orlmighty, some o’you toeraggers (short-timers) take the cake.

3. a general term of contemptuous abuse.

1886		Bathhurst Free Press (NSW) 9 Mar. 2/5: Mr. Suttor could make a good member if he liked [...] but he only legislated for himself and [...] the ‘toe-raggers,’ who were now hanging round him.
1896		Truth (Sydney) 12 Jan. n.p.: The bushie’s favourite term of opprobrium ‘a toe-ragger’ is Maori... The nastiest term of contempt was tua rika rika, or slave. The old whalers on the Maoriland coast in their anger called each other toe-riggers, and to-day the word in the form of toe-ragger has spread throughout the whole of the South Seas.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 161: TOE-RAGGER: slang a person of no position, occupation, wealth, or attainments.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 15 Oct. 4/7: Nothing but political candidates and their toeraggers just now. Project a brick anywhere and you will strike an electioneering agent.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 240/2: toe-ragger – person with no prestige or social standing.
1988		see sense 1.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Toe ragger. Someone who is at nadir of social acceptance in prison or anywhere else.

4. a down-and-out vagrant.

1889		Aus. Star (Sydney) 29 Apr. 6/4: Lizzie Stanning, 19 [...] was sentenced to a term of three months’ hard labor on the vagrant ticket [...] she had been consorting with a num ber of ‘toe-raggers’ and other vaga bonds around Circular Quay.
1899		Reynolds’s Newspaper 27 Aug. 4/6: A band of impecunious wanderers, swagmen, toe-raggers and dead beats.
1892		Wagga Wagga Exp. (NSW) 14 June 4/2: [H]e is only a ‘toe-ragger’ [...] convicted [...] under the present Vagrant Act.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Apr. 1/1: What the teetotallers of the party didn’t drink, the toeraggers gladly surrounded.
1919		V. Marshall World of Living Dead (1969) 82: The ‘toeragger’ was hustled off to be hoarded away for the weekly ‘beak.’.
1943		Piqua Dly Call (OH) 22 Apr. 4/8: To continue our Aussie Double-Talk list [...] Toe-ragger: a tramp.
1966		G.W. Turner Eng. Lang. in Aus. 144: The toeragger was not much wealthier than the battler. His name is from the rags he wore in lieu of socks.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 114/1: toe-ragger swagman, down-and-outer, nowadays usually ‘toerag’, a term of affectionate abuse; probably from the foot-bindings tramps or swaggies wore; the whalers used toe-riggers as a term of abuse, probably derived from Maori ‘taurekareka’, a contemptuous term for a slave or captive taken in war.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

5. (NZ) a curse.

1938

Press (Canterbury) 2 Apr. 18: Slang words of maori origin were once common [...] ‘toe-ragger,’ a curse (taure-kareka).