Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see rag trade

1. a dollar bill [SAmE rag baby, a war bond that had been issued in exchanragge for paper dollars at a time when the value of a paper dollar was 40 cents on the dollar in coin].

1875		Wkly Kansas Chief (Troy, KS) 30 Dec. 3/2: Police Judge Flick [...] ordered that the aforesaid Thomas Jefferson inflate the city exchequer to the amount of a two dollar ‘rag baby’.
1876		Leavenworth Wkly Times (KS) 27 Apr. 1/4: We must sell more than we buy. Then the rag baby and the gold dollar will both stand upon the same platform in peace.
1877		Atlanta Constitution 16 Nov. 2/6: ‘The dollar of our daddyites’ and the ‘rag baby,’ as they are pleased to designate silver coin and greenbacks.
1897		Record-Union (Sacramento, CA) 20 Oct. 4/6: It’s dollars to ragbabies that there will be an end to them before the clock strikes six.
1919		Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 17 May 8/5: The paper currency of the government is a ‘Rag Baby’.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1877		Stark Co. Democrat (Canton, OH) 15 July 1/2: They are opposed to all wild cat, red dog, rag baby money schemes of issuing paper dollars without limit.
1898		Daily Capital Jrnl (Salem, OR) 22 July 2/4: Nobody then can advocate that these bonds, bought for rag-baby-value dollars, shall be collected in more than rag-baby-value dollars.

3. see also SE compounds below.

see separate entry.

an ensign, charged with carrying the flag.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

see separate entries.

a wealthy man.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 261: rag-gorgy: a rich or monied man, but generally used in conversation when a particular gentleman, or person high in office, is hinted at; instead of mentioning his name, they say, the Rag-gorgy, knowing themselves to be understood by those they are addressing.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1812].
1835		Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 333: We were both of one age and fly; resolved to get a cly full of ridge, if we could but [...] meet with the rag-gorgies.

(US campus) a person who plays tricks; something unpleasant.

1979

Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 6: rag out – [...] the cause of disgust or amusement: You rag out! You’re always playing tricks on me.

a bank; thus rag-shop boss, a banker, rag-shop cove, a banker, a cashier.

1818		Niles’ Register 29 Aug. 3/2: However, we see in the newspaper; that the cashier of a ‘full bred’ rag shop in the western country, lately stabbed and killed a respectable citizen seeking the payment of debts due to him [DA].
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 22: [She] takes all the money I get at the rag-shop.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 197/1: I’ve got five times as much for writing a squib for a rag-shop as for a ballad that has taken me double that time.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 64: Rag Shop, a bank.
1942		G. Casey It’s Harder for Girls 18: She could get a job in one of the big ragshops in the city.

a wealthy man.

1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 80: RAG SPLAWGER, a rich man.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 64: Rag Splawger, a rich man.

1. the purchasing of counterfeit banknotes and the subsequent passing them off to innocent victims.

1864

Glasgow Citizen 19 Nov. n.p.: Is not the exhilarating ‘short length’ of handy known beyond our own Queen Street that it is not registered here? And we miss the rag trade whose worthy members do the above named goes [F&H].

2. the garment industry; (cite 1846 presumably ref. to actual trading in rags; thus rag trader n., a person in the industry.

[1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: craig: Aby Houndsditch. aby: Here. covey: Of the Rag Fair Fencibles].
[1846		Censor (London) 18 Jan. 6/1: [C]ounter-jumpers in the wholesale rag trade].
[1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature II 372: His coat [...] had got pawned to a Jew at Rag-alley].
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 131: Most of them are in the gown business, known locally as the ‘rag trade’.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 92: Several of Wally’s clients had been making fortunes out of the black market end of the rag trade.
1967		Oz 3 2/3: Mary Quant [...] and four hundred other original dress designers [...] are making more money each than Balenciaga ever did in the rag trade.
1976		Sun. Times Mag. 24 Oct. 74: ‘Hyme, my brother,’ he said, slapping a rag trader on the back.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 88: In the affluent 1960s ‘teenagers’ became a valuable market for the rag trade.
1999		Observer Mag. 16 May 30: Chigwell [...] where his father moved after years in the East End rag trade.
2001		Guardian 31 Mar. 28: The heart of the West End rag trade, north of Oxford Street.

the menstrual period.

1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: rag week n. [...] 2. The time of the month when the no bathing flags fly.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 144: It’s aw fuckin meat tae Bruce Robertson, rag week or no, the bloodier the better!
2000		‘UK Snowy’ ‘Christmas Blackmail’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 She started her periods early and when I got her into bed, all the pretty little innocent that she was, I found it was still her rag week.

cash (rather than credit).

1840		Flash Mirror 19: G. Guttle [...] has just opened a slap up grub and bub shop [...] (for ready rag only), where he sells panum, lap and peck of every sort.
1840		Courier (Hobart, Tas.) 27 Oct. 3/1: [advert, from UK source] I, having plenty of ready rag in my Kick, grabbed the chance.

see under dead adj.

see under drop v.¹

to show off one’s bankroll.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

1. (also get one’s rag up) to lose one’s temper.

1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 185: ‘To get one’s rag out’ is to get into an excessively bad temper.
1893		H. Lawson ‘Macquarie’s Mate’ in Roderick (1972) 121: Well, old man, you needn’t get your rag out about it.
1906		Marvel 17 Nov. 476: Got his rag out because his old father showed him up in front of us.
1917		‘Sapper’ No Man’s Land 220: When the moment comes, and you’ve got your rag out and are seeing red.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 110: Yes, Menton. Got his rag out that evening on the bowling green because I sailed inside him.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 231: Although she was half doolally she was apt to get her rag out pretty quick.
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 218: Oh, sit down, and don’t get your rag out.
1945		N. Marsh Died in the Wool (1963) 223: I’m sorry if i got my rag out, sir.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 17: He had called her a slab-sided cow and that had got her rag out.
1961		‘Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter at Butlins 44: I say, you fellows, what’s the row? What are you getting your rag out for?

2. to make someone else angry.

1888		N&Q Ser. 7 VI 38: To rag a man is good Lincolnshire for chaff or tease. At school to get a boy into a rage was called getting his rag out.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 3/2: I thought it up to any bloke to know / The proper time er day to shut ’is ’ead. / ’E got me rag out an’ I told ’im so; / The girl an’ cove ’ad plainly got ’im set, / Though both of them was shick an’ drippin’ wet.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 176: This got his rag up.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 40: We on’y called ’er Agatha to get ’er rag out.
1963		C. Wood ‘Prisoner and Escort’ in Cockade (1965) I iii: You’ve got his rag up now Jupp.

(W.I.) to tease and joke aggressively and competitively.

1972

R.D. Abrahams ‘Joking: The Training of the Man of Words’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 218: Known by a number of names in the United States, such as rapping or signifying [...] in the West Indies it is called giving rag, making mock, and giving fatigue.

to perform cunnilingus on a menstruating woman.

2018

I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [27]: He idly wonders if Mikey is a pussy eater, whether he goes south on rag week, and if he brushes his teeth after.

1. of a woman, to be menstruating.

c.1940		‘These Foolish Things’ in Bold (1979) 212: That rusty bedstead we had our first shags on / The week of silence when you had the rags on.
1945		‘Whoa Back, Gee Back’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 33: I took my girl out parking, I laid her on the some bags, / But when I started fooling around, Found she had the [rags].
1951		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 418: Girl with a rag on – NO GOOD!
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 49: If a babe has the rag on [...] that’s different.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 188: What’s wit’ you, you got the rag on or somethin’?
1986		H. Selby Jr Song of the Silent Snow (1988) 68: Having the rag on is one thing but this ridic—.
2005		J. Schrantz Boo’s Foster Homes and Beyond 81: Yeah, so we just sat around and talked all night [...] Oh, well, what’s a guy going to do when a broad’s got the rag on?

2. to act foolishly or eccentrically, to be annoyed.

1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 53: Tony’s place is so dreary [...] and I guess I just have the rag on tonight anyway.
1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 89: He must’ve had the fuckin’ rag on or something.
1995		R.K. Tanenbaum Corruption of Blood 100: Oooh, who’s got the rag on today? [...] Maybe you’re suffering from lack of nooky too.
2005		P. Puglionisi Four Diavolos 202: ‘I guess he’s got the rag on.’ Pino said ‘Fuck him.’.

3. of a man, to be bleeding after anal intercourse or rape.

2024

J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 618: He bled through his coarse striped uniform - ‘He’s got the rags out - the little diddy sweetheart!’.

to keep one’s temper.

1999

N. Cohn Yes We have No 148: I didn’t hold my rag.

to lose one’s temper.

1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 158: I lost the rag.
1983		A. Payne ‘Get Daley!’ Minder [TV script] 50: Daley, I’m going to lose my rag.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] I just lose me rag with the cunt. [...] He goes off in a snot.
1998		J. Hoskison Inside 77: Unless you’re prepared to back it up don’t lose your rag.
2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 128: It’s enough to wreck anyone’s head so eventually I lose the rag with him.
2004		Guardian Weekend 23 Oct. 25: Eventually, he lost his rag.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 43: I knew how quickly you could lose the rag.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 279: speed. The boss/manager/pimp at the brothel lost the rag with me because he was getting complaints.

(UK juv.) extremely angry, in a furious temper.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 (off his...) rag adj. Someone who has lost their temper.

1. menstruating; thus off the rag.

1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 34: She just came off the rag and Candle ain’t gonna waste no time.
1967–8		C. Baker et al. CUSS.
1979		Lette & Cary Puberty Blues 25: I bluffed it for a few days . . .‘Oh, I’m on m’rags.’.
1981		(con. 1963) P. Conroy Lords of Discipline 144: I am the shit that comes from a woman when she’s on the rag!
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 31: ‘I’m on my rags’ (or ‘red rags’) is [...] curiously reverting to a time before sanitay napkins were widely available and when strips of towelling and sheets were worn during menstruation.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 233: A feminist magazine (doubtless called On the Rag or some such).
1999		Guardian Weekend 28 Aug. 3: The rastafarian who won’t let his girlfriend into the kitchen when she’s ‘on the rag’.
2000		Observer Rev. 9 Apr. 12: It’s bad timing that I should be coming on the rag just now.
2006		Re’al ‘Bull’ Oney Hellions! 32: He really got his cookies off on guys like that. Then, like a woman off the rag, he got nicer.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 26: The menarche, a visit from Aunt Flo, on the rag, the curse, call it what you will.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 266: [S]he pressed against me and grabbed my cock. I tried to take her pants off but she stopped me and said she was on the rag.
2019		M. Herron Joe Country [ebook] ‘You’re too old to be on the rag’.

2. irritated, testy, bad-tempered; thus share the rag, to be hostile, to place blame on someone else.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 180: Rag, on the Constantly complaining and irritable.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 235: He always calls me ‘Sergeant’ when he’s on the rag.
1983		R. Price Breaks 293: I didn’t know why he was on the rag, but that was his problem.
1995		(con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 23: The fat yak is on the rag. He’ll get over it.
2002		C. Stella Jimmy Bench-Press 67: She’s been on the rag since the other day.

see under ride v.

(US gay) to be hostile, to pass responsibility onto another.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 178: share the rag (kwn SF, ’70) to be hostile; to shift the guilt to another’s shoulders, to pass the buck.

(US) in fig. use, to control one’s temper, to cheer up.

1993

A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 124: Man, I can see you in a lousy mood again. Like, take the rag out already, bro’.

(US Und.) to perform a stock swindle.

1960

L. Block ‘Badger Game’ in One Night Stands (2008) 25: I just got finished working the rag in Dallas. [Ibid.] 29: He had told her he had just finished pulling off a rag, a phony stock con.

a dismissive excl.; the implication is that the addressee is lit. or fig. suffering from menstrual ill temper.

1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 11: ‘Get off the rag, bitch!’ He left her standing in the frozen food department.
1980		E. Brill I Looked Over Jordan 166: She’d stand, hand on hip, sneering, ‘Get off the rag, Dot’.
1981		M.S. Willis Higher Ground 131: Well, I hope you get off the rag before rehearsal. One Teresa Spinett is enough.
1996		Lynch & Woods Off the Rag 7: Later, when I heard women being told to ‘get off the rag’ or [...] ‘being such a rag’, I was able to connect these phrases with premenstrual [...] irritability.
2001		F. DiPietro Portobello Road 36: ‘Oh get off the rag!’ I told her.

a contemptible person, usu. impoverished or dishevelled; also as a derog. term of address.

1985		F.L. Buss Dignity 72: You, rag ass, how come you didn't come when I called you last night?
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 273: I ain’t spectin no shit from Wesly an his little rag-asses.
2013		J.A. Costa Portal in Time 105: It’s classy, not like you, you rag ass.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 27: No way in the world is this smacked-up rag-arse getting his yellowing fingertips under my clothes.

(US black) impoverished, contemptible.

1975		D.J. Gerrity Never Contract 60: You call that rag-ass young cunt a woman? That’s a fucking stick.
2005		J.E. Wideman Philadelphia Fire 150: These detention-center concentration-camp rag-ass prisons we call public schools.

1. (US black) a poor, ill-clothed woman, who is nonetheless attractive.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

2. see also sl. compounds above.

see separate entry.

(US) a backstreet, the poor, run-down part of a city.

1909

J. Washburn Und. Sewer 107: While the millionaire’s daughter will never reach the condition existing in rag-cat alley the women of our highest society in the underworld comes to the lowest dive and crib.

see rag bag n.

see separate entry.

1. a cheap rooming house or ‘hotel’, esp. in a town based on an oil-drilling camp.

1851		L. Clappe in Shirley Letters (1949) 49: In this rag and card-board house, one is compelled to hear the most sacred names constantly profaned by the drinkers and gamblers who haunt the bar-room.
1914		S. Dalrymple From Pithole to California 19: Petroleum Proverbs [...] You can give a toolie water but you can't make him drink. Those who live in a rag house shouldn't throw bones.
1930		R.F. Harlow Biog. of E.W. Hill 99: Every oil rig, every house in the field, large or small, rag-house or oil company camp, all were potential ice customer.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 49: Bunking in the dingy half-canvas cot houses — rag houses, they were called.

2. (also rag) a tent.

1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 117: After narrating the downfall of his ‘rag house,’ he dryly remarked that [...] he was not going to have much uninterrupted sleep.
1906		Ohio Educational Mthly 55 205: A little girl down in Meigs county says that a tent is a rag house.
1915		Travel 25 42: Forthwith the tent stove is set up in our ‘rag house,’ as the mountaineers call the 9 x I5 foot wall tent.
1922		Shoe Workers’ Jrnl 23 22: Evicted miners living in tent colonies, or ‘rag house villages,’ with scarcely any food to feed their families, with only rags to protect their bodies in damp and freezing weather .
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 13/1: Rag – Tent in a circus.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 460: Rag-house, A tent.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 154: Rag House.–A tent.

aggressively uncouth, very badly mannered.

1698		J. Collier Profanesse and Immorality of the Stage (1730) 143: This young Lady, swears, talks smut, and is upon the Matter just as rag-manner’d as Mary the Buxome.
c.1706		letter in J. Dunton Bodleian mss (1818) 759: I would not have you think that I am so rag-mannered as not to return you my thanks for your beneficence.

(US Und.) a team of confidence men working ‘the rag’, a trick based on persuading the victim that they can profit from a fixed stock swindle.

1965

J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 101: A rag mob played a rancher against the wall for seventy-five big ones.

a second-hand clothing shop.

1889

Music Hall & Theatre Rev 23 Mar. 86/2: [Y]oung fellows who earn £1 7s. 6d. per week and go about booking gaiters and things at the rag shops.

an umbrella, esp. one that is not rolled up.

1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 192/2: The Old Ragstick. Umbrella.

1. a truck that has an open back, which, when loaded, is covered with a tarpaulin.

1940		Motor Truck News 41/1: Rag top: open-top trailer using a tarpaulin for covering.
1971		M. Tak Truck Talk 127: Rag top: 1. a low-sided trailer with metal bows over the top to support a tarpaulin [...] 2. an open top van with a tarpaulin covering over the top.

2. (also rag) the car or truck’s soft top.

1945		Collier’s Mag. 115 82: He didn’t have enough gas to drive around and if it really started to rain the rag top of the convertible would leak like a sieve.
1979		T. Gifford Hollywood Gothic 100: Eddie’s ragtop had a small tear that let the rain draw a bead on the back of the seat .
1996		Steve Earle ‘Billy and Bonnie’ 🎵 Blew down the highway with the ragtop down.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 109: He was driving a metallic green Jag with a peanut butter rag.
2003		Gillian Welch ‘Look at Miss Ohio’ 🎵 Running around with the ragtop down.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 136: She dropped the ragtop of her Pontiac [...] and drove north.

3. (also ragger) a car with a ‘convertible’ soft top .

1954		Life Mag. 22 Mar. 108/1: He centers on a rag-top with a stick that sells for $1,900, then he asks five bills ($500) for his piece.
1959		Pop. Science Apr. 88: Your dreams of four-wheeled glory were no match for the tired, but durable folklore perpetuated largely by curbstone experts who have never owned what they derisively call a ‘rag top’.
1966		Current Sl. I:2 5/1: Rag top, n. Convertible.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 112: Like you got your pimp ride [...] long and sleeky lookin’, black blade wid a rag top.
1982		R. Spottiswoode 48 Hrs [film script] Reggie: What kind of car do you want? Jack: A convertible. I’m a rag top man.
1986		J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 273: It was a mint-condition ’54 Chevy ragger, candy-apple sapphire blue, canary yellow top.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 70: A VW ragtop that runs worse than New York City.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 263: Across the street was a Merc sports rag-top.
2003		UGK ‘Front, Back and Side to Side’ 🎵 Go swing down sweet rag top and let me ride.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 33: An up-and-coming sniff retailer wants to treat himself to a BMW rag-top.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 178: [A] ’49 Ford ragtop, tan over blue.

spirits, esp. gin.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Rag-water, a common sort of Strong-waters.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Rag Water. Gin, or any other common dram: these liquors seldom failing to reduce those that drink them to rags.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 72: rag-water Intoxicating liquor of all kinds. If frequently taken to excess, will reduce any person to rags.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 64: Rag-water, liquor of all kinds, if indulged in it reduces the consumer to rags.

1. (drugs) inferior quality marijuana (but note cite 2001 Looser, which suggests strength).

1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 210: ragweed poor grade of marijuana.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 338: ragweed: Low-potency marijuana.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 51: Mutt and Jeff were back on the couch, cooking their heads on some rag weed.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 17: Ragweed — Inferior quality marijuana.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 151/1: ragweed n. see skunk.

2. heroin.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 17: Ragweed — [...] heroin.

(Irish) a man who pursues a number of women at the same time; thus (cite 1906) the subjects of such attentions.

1838		D.I. Moriarty The Wife Hunter 130: Those sogers and sailors have a rag on every bush.
1866		N&Q 3 ser. 9 June 474/1: A Rag Upon Every Bush. This saying [...] is usually applied to young men who are in the habit of showing ‘marked attention’ to more than one lady at a time. I do not remember having heard it anywhere but in Ireland.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 141: ’Tis dhroll [...] I, that had my fling among ’em all, an’ never lost a wink uv sleep on account uv any girl that ever was born, to be this way! Sally Mockler called me a rag on every bush, no later than last night.
1887		Contemp. Rev. 51 250: We don’t believe in him; he has ‘a rag on every bush.’ The reference is to ‘well-dressing.’ You will sometimes see a bush near a holy well covered with offerings in the shape of shreds of coloured rag.
1901		Katharine Tynan Daughter in the Fields 141: I was just the same myself when I was his age — a rag on every bush, and ‘whistle and I'll come to ye, my lad,’ with every girl I met.
1910		P.W. Joyce Eng. As We Speak It In Ireland.
1919		Somerville & Ross Mount Music 248: A strong, cocky young boy he is too [...] Sure didn’t I tell him it was what it was he had a rag on every bush !
1922		A.A. Brill Psychoanalysis 106: His mother said that ‘she was a rag on every bush,’ meaning that she was owned by a great many men. This recalled to him that while he was separated from his wife he met a great many women who were ‘a rag on every bush.’ He did not yield to temptation, but entertained a great many forbidden fancies .
1997		Share Slanguage.

(US) to surpass, to excel, to outdo.

1832		J.K. Paulding Westward Ho! I 123: Well, Sam, you do take the rag off the bush, that’s sartin.
1837		D. Crockett Almanack in Meine Crockett Almanacks (1955) 107: I can take the rag off – frighten the old folks – astonish the natives – and beat the Dutch all to smash.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 226: Why it’s rather takin’ the rag off the bush, ain’t it?
1853		T. Haliburton Sam Slick’s Wise Saws I 82: To be the elect of twenty-five millions of free, independent, and enlightened white citizens [...] takes the rag off of European monarchs; don’t it? [Ibid.] 116: ‘Do you hear that, Matey’ said he; ‘don’t that take the rag off the bush?’.
1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature I 37: The fun of the forecastle! [...] I think I would back that place for wit against any bar-room in New York or New Orleans, and I believe they take the rag off of all creation.
1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 384: rag. [...] The common phrase ‘to take the rag off,’ i.e. to excel, seems to be the form from which this word has been abbreviated.
1860		T. Haliburton Season-Ticket 362: ‘Well! I never in all my born days!’sais I, ‘it takes the rag off the bush quite, that, if you didn’t row them all up Salt River, it’s a pity!’.
1877		Gleanings in Bee Culture 5 35: By the by, we are making a bee hive that ‘takes the rag off the bush’.
1883		J.A. Joyce Checkered Life 197: San Francisco by gas-light ‘takes the rag off the bush’.
1898		F. Dumont Dumont’s Joke Book 73: That last song took the rag off the bush.
1902		W.N. Harben Abner Daniel 264: You are a jim-dandy, young man [...] You take the rag off the bush.
1903		D.S. Crumb ‘Dialect of Southeastern Missouri’ in DN II:v 333: take the rag off, v.phr. To excel; to outshine.
1943		Bayler & Carnes Last Man Off Wake Island 293: The raid simply ‘tore the rag off the bush’ so far as my lofty radio station on Pagoda Hill was concerned.
1948		Z.N. Hurston Seraph on the Suwanee (1995) 762: Well, if this don’t take the rag clean off the bush!
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 291: Take the rag off the bush: phr. Sometimes this expression denotes only profound astonishment.
1977		R. Coover Public Burning (1979) 110: Gawdamighty, you do take the rag off the bush, boy!