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Glite Dictionary
on the rag

on the rag

5 9.9
A woman who is having her period, said in a rude way
  • idiom
  • /ɑn ðə ræg/
  • Slur
translation icon : estar de la regla (vulgar)
  • You should see me when I'm on the rag.
  • on the rag again

Examples

  • Once a month on the rag.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • "Yeah, man, I'm on the rag!"

    Academic text (1995)

  • "I must be on the rag."

    Fiction book (1994)

  • If any of you is on the rag, we don't want you.

    Blindness (2008)

  • What're you, on the rag?

    Girl Lost (2018)

  • She's been feeling quite moody because she's on the rag this week.

  • He should apologize; when she's on the rag, she gets easily irritated.

  • During our movie night, I could tell she was on the rag by her sudden outbursts.

Synonyms

to menstruate
vson the rag
11 5.1

To bleed from the womb as part of a woman's monthly period

is a rude or vulgar way to describe the same biological bleeding

Surface Forms

on the rag positive

Morphology

on + the + rag

The meaning 'menstruating' is not directly or predictably derived from the literal words 'on' + 'the' + 'rag'; 'rag' as cloth requires knowledge of a historical/euphemistic usage linking rags to menstrual cloths. This is an informal, vulgar idiom whose sense is culturally specific and slangy, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would unlikely infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

On the rag may come from old times when women used a cloth, a rag, to soak up the blood during their monthly 'period'. So on the rag came to mean 'menstruating' and is often seen as rude.