Word.ws English Dictionary

on the rag

on the rag prepositional phrase: menstruating.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (derogatory, euphemistic, idiomatic, slang, sometimes, vulgar) Menstruating.
    • She herself had begun menstruation shortly after her eleventh birthday and had gone to the head of the stairs to yell down excitedly: "Hey, Mum, I'm on the rag!"1974, Stephen King, Carrie, page 14
    • Harold: How is Sarah? I don't want to jump her while she's on the rag.1983, The Big Chill
    Synonyms:
    on one's period
  2. (broadly, derogatory, idiomatic, slang, vulgar) In a bad mood; angry or irritable.
    • On the rag, in a bad mood.—College males, Arizona. I had a lousy time last night because she was on the rag.1967, University of South Dakota, English Dept, Current Slang, Volumes 2-5, page 5
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, rag.

Synonyms of on the rag

Origin of on the rag

From rag as a slang term for a menstrual pad. First use appears c. 1967. See cite below.

Questions about on the rag

What does on the rag mean?
On the rag means menstruating.
What part of speech is on the rag?
On the rag is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the rag in the dictionary

  1. on the quarter
  2. on the qui vive
  3. on the quiet
  4. on the rack
  5. on the radar
  6. on the rag
  7. on the rail
  8. on the rails
  9. on the rampage
  10. on the ran tan
  11. on the raw

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the rag (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-on the rag.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the rag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_rag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.