Shakerag
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A pauper; a bum.
"[…] that it is our Lords intent to trie our pacience the better, when he casteth vs after that maner into contempt, no only of those that are in authoritie & estimation, but also those that are the veriest shakerags , so as we wold in our minde thinke our selues to be assaulted rather of brute beastes than of men."
- 1 A common nickname given to a poor rural town.
"We passed a little place to-day called Shakerag, which reminded us very much of a little town we passed through in Kentucky called Dogwalk."
- 2 A nickname sometimes given to the slum area of town in the Southern United States.
"Shakerag's nondescript shacks were alive with music day and night, a sharp contrast to the dreary, monotonous routines of work-a-day life."
Example
More examples"[…] that it is our Lords intent to trie our pacience the better, when he casteth vs after that maner into contempt, no only of those that are in authoritie & estimation, but also those that are the veriest shakerags , so as we wold in our minde thinke our selues to be assaulted rather of brute beastes than of men."
Etymology
From shake + rag.
Probably from shakerag, although some authors propose other etymologies such as the use of rags to cover the nose and mouth during the Spanish flu.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.