Noah Webster's Dictionary 1. (v. t.) To scold or rail at; to rate; to tease; to torment; to banter. 2. (n.) A piece of cloth torn off; a tattered piece of cloth; a shred; a tatter; a fragment. 3. (n.) Hence, mean or tattered attire; worn-out dress. 4. (n.) A shabby, beggarly fellow; a ragamuffin. 5. (n.) A coarse kind of rock, somewhat cellular in texture. 6. (n.) A ragged edge. 7. (n.) A sail, or any piece of canvas. 8. (v. i.) To become tattered. 9. (v. t.) To break (ore) into lumps for sorting. 10. (v. t.) To cut or dress roughly, as a grindstone. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia RAG Plural in Proverbs 23:21, "Drowsiness will clothe a man with rags" (qera'im "torn garment"; compare 1 Kings 11:30), and figuratively in Isaiah 64:6 the King James Version, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," in the sense of "tattered clothing" (beghedh, the Revised Version (British and American) "garment"). In Jeremiah 38:11, 12 the American Standard Revised Version translates cechabhah, as "rag" (the King James Version, the English Revised Version "old cast clout"), while the King James Version, the English Revised Version use "rotten rag" for melach (the American Standard Revised Version "worn-out garment"). Both cechabhah and melach mean "worn out."