Etymology Perhaps related to Norwegian skragg (a lean person), dialectal Swedish skragge (old and torn thing), Danish skrog (hull, carcass); perhaps related to shrink.
In any event he might have wakened the long scrag by so doing.1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan:
2
Archaic The lean end of a neck of mutton; the scrag end.
The butcher and the porkman painted up only the leanest scrags of meat; the baker, the coarsest of meagre loaves.2007, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Penguin, →ISBN, page 34:
As they entered the foothills they came upon a dusty old diligence with six horses in the traces grazing the dry grass in a fold among the barren scrag.1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian or The Evening of Redness in the West, Vintage International, →ISBN, page 120:
5
UK, Derogatory, Slang A chav or ned; a stereotypically loud and aggressive person of lower social class.
The large guy said that he couldnt sit down the front because of an eye condition, and she said, out loud, "too bad, go down the front". This was all heard by most of the crowd, 1 guy called her a bitch, i spoke out loud "what a scrag" which her boyfriend heard, he turned around agro like to defend her, when another guy yelled out "if you get agro about that son, ill be over there to show your girlfriend some manners", to which he promplty sat down :-), but after that she put her feet up on the seat in front of her !!1998 June 9, Shane, “feed up with noise in cinemas”, in aus.films (Usenet):
Post scrag fight, Buffy is sweetness and light in her cardy and teeny tiny handbag (plus blonde hair) contrasting with Faith who is lying in bed with her kill-me-thrill-me cutoff shorts (plus brunette hair).1999 December 18, Kenny, “The Observer AND the Times: Episode 3.7 Revelations”, in aus.tv.buffy (Usenet):
1 more example
Get a life, you stupid scrag.2003 June 2, Peter Lucas, “The Chief takes a hit”, in alt.ozdebate (Usenet):
Etymology Perhaps related to Norwegian skragg (a lean person), dialectal Swedish skragge (old and torn thing), Danish skrog (hull, carcass); perhaps related to shrink.
1
Colloquial, Obsolete To hang on a gallows, or to choke, garotte, or strangle.
An enthusiastic mob will scrag me to a certainty the day war breaks out.1899, Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne, “Atoms of Empire”, in Pall Mall Magazine:
2
To harass; to manhandle.
'...I urged him ... to ... try the Ickenham System ... a little thing I knocked together in my bachelor days ... it has a good many points in common with all-in wrestling and osteopathy. I generally recommend it to diffident wooers and it always works like magic...' Johnny stared. 'You mean you told McMurdo to … scrag her?'1958, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 15, in Cocktail Time:
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To destroy or kill.
[...] I went out lookin' for a line of retreat for my men. A man found me. I abolished him—privatim—scragged him.1897 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Slaves of the Lamp. Part II.”, in Stalky & Co., London: Macmillan & Co., published 1899, →OCLC, page 258:
But they'll scrag you for it, you know, if you do. They scrag anyone who speaks to me.2009, Steve Augarde, Celandine, →ISBN, page 162: