I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
from rags to riches (= from being poor to being rich )
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the story of her rise from rags to riches
local rag
rag doll
rag trade
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
glad
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Put on the glad rags and go out and party, after that?
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She changed out of her glad rags , tugged on old jeans and a sweatshirt and drove out to his house.
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Her sister-in-law's glad rags were not very glad.
local
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I advertised in the local rag , but to no avail.
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But that wretched Sandra would have had a field day too - her picture in the local rag in her best dress.
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I can scour the local rags !
oily
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The room was shuttered and smelt of oily rags and leather.
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He backed off, wiping his hands on the oily rag , frowning.
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The garage guy soon joined him, wiping an oily rag with his oily fingers.
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She knew all about fire hazards. Oily rags never spent a night in our house.
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He had found Bert giving the machine a final wipe over with an oily rag .
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He fed it lots of oil and wiped at it all the time with an oily rag so it shone.
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With an oily rag , rub the metal part.
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Jim reached across and wiped his mate's forehead with an oily rag .
red
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When I got back to the villa, I saw a red rag tied to the balcony.
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You saved the red rags for the center if you wanted it to look like that.
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Behaviour which seems innocuous to one person can be a red rag to another.
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Where you and I see blue blazers, the Manchester United captain sees a red rag .
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That idea was already red rag enough to the old gentleman.
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Such developments were, for Draper, red rag to a bull - hence his recourse to history for the counterattack.
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His optimism was a red rag to the protesters.
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Naturally this was like a red rag to a bull and I refused to even consider such a course of action.
wet
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What a contrast to those wet rags she wore in the movie!
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And it took you all your time to get them decent again with a wet rag .
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Sometimes amateurs wrap wood in hot wet rags when they want to bend it.
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I ran up to the guest room, stripped naked and washed myself with a wet rag .
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It hung limply from the tubercular shoulders of its master like a wet rag on a cardboard donkey.
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They're not all that good, but they're better than that soaking wet rag you're wearing now.
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The unremitting four-mile ascent to the high pass over the ridge reduced me to a walking wet rag .
■ NOUN
doll
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This rag doll treatment of our things is great fun for him.
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Maddened by the limp rag doll banging against his legs, he veered to the left.
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This was how he remembered her, rather than as the cancer-pained rag doll he had nursed until her death.
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He grabbed her collar, dragging her clear and across the mud like a life-size rag doll .
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The second was propped, ungainly as a rag doll , against the far wall.
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She looked like a rag doll .
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Can't you see how obscene it is to get him dressed up and wheel him around like a big rag doll ?
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That was when Kleiber had given up the struggle and collapsed, limp and helpless as a rag doll .
rug
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Petey watched him lift the suitcase off the bed and put it on the round rag rug .
trade
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As a city it has a great deal to offer - especially to some one like myself who works in the rag trade .
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No such inhibitions stunt the growth of the rag trade at the polar opposite point from the basking Sloanes.
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Beware of an opportunist rag trade beginning to sell you recycled clothing under the guise of social awareness.
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It can be adapted to clothing and Clarks intends to sell its expertise to the rag trade .
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My wife is a business woman with two shops and I came out at the height of the rag trade jamborees.
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The rag trade adopted the same approach when it came to designing and flogging its clobber.
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And yet I didn't want to be consigned to the rag trade .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be on the ragged edge
glad rags
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Her sister-in-law's glad rags were not very glad.
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Put on the glad rags and go out and party, after that?
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She changed out of her glad rags, tugged on old jeans and a sweatshirt and drove out to his house.
like a red rag to a bull
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Naturally this was like a red rag to a bull and I refused to even consider such a course of action.
lose your temper/cool/rag
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Bunny wasn't the only one to lose his temper.
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He obviously had impregnation on his mind, but by now Lydia had lost her temper and she told him to get stuffed.
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I should not have lost my cool and behaved in that manner.
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I then walked across to the photographers and lost my temper, lost my head.
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Never-absolutely never in my experience-did President Reagan really lose his temper or utter a rude or unkind word.
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She couldn't blame him for frightening Anna, for losing his temper with the child.
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That was plainly evident in the locker room, where Hostetler teetered on the brink of openly losing his temper.
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Why did he always choose to lose his temper over issues in which he was in the wrong?
the rag trade
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Just get a rag and wipe it up.
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Maple Leaf Rag
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That paper's nothing but a fascist rag .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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A wet finger or rag will smooth a caulked joint and leave a neat appearance.
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He put the rags be-tween my legs.
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I opened the window, stepped out on the ledge, and began to wash windowpanes with a rag .
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The smell of oil clung to her as strongly as it did to the rags in the van.
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The thin cake was hard and resistant as a frozen rag .
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This was how he remembered her, rather than as the cancer-pained rag doll he had nursed until her death.
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When I got back to the villa, I saw a red rag tied to the balcony.
II. verb
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be on the ragged edge
glad rags
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Her sister-in-law's glad rags were not very glad.
▪
Put on the glad rags and go out and party, after that?
▪
She changed out of her glad rags, tugged on old jeans and a sweatshirt and drove out to his house.
like a red rag to a bull
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Naturally this was like a red rag to a bull and I refused to even consider such a course of action.
the rag trade
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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A ragged halo of smoky-blue cloud wraps round the intense silver glow.
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Arsenal could easily have trebled their score as they ran Liverpool ragged in the second half.
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Brush on the dye, working with the grain, and rag off any excess.
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He lay naked on his back with the ragged stump of his leg pointing out the side door.
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Her voice sounded ragged from much weeping.
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There'd been a ragged reconciliation in the morning.
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Theresa tipped the can over; the squirrel, looking ragged, scooted toward liberation.
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Uncle Michael on a metal bed, cocooned in a fold of army blanket under mosquito netting, drawing ragged breaths.