Word.ws English Dictionary

smell of an oily rag

smell of an oily rag noun: a very small amount, or the absolute minimum (usually of money).

Noun

smell of an oily rag

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, idiomatic) A very small amount, or the absolute minimum (usually of money).
    • We have found them in the remote corners of Asia Minor, sans souliers, sans culottes, often in rags, living on the smell of an oily rag or a raw onion, trying their best to preserve order where their own miserable officials have brought shame and disgrace upon their tarnished colours.1896, Dayrell Davies, "Sport with the Brigands of Macedonia," The Badminton Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Longmans, Green, and Co., no. XII (July to December 1896), v. III, pg. 65
    • Full of bog, goes anywhere you want to go, don't pay for insurance, runs on the smell of an oily rag.1998, Ian Shaw, quoted in Richard Strauss, Up for Rego: A Social History of the Holden Kingswood, Pluto Press Australia, pg. 33

smell of an oily rag meaning in Bengali

smell of an oily rag in Bengali

খুব সামান্য পরিমাণ, বা সর্বনিম্ন প্রয়োজনীয় অংশ

Examples of smell of an oily rag in a sentence

  • They're prone to giving away their rations and living off the smell of an oily rag.2008, Susan Napier, Accidental Mistress, page 59:
  • "We did it on the smell of an oily rag", says Danielle Kootman of Tourism Queensland.2009 May 1, Nick Bryant, “'Selling' Queensland with a dream job”, in BBC News:
  • They had the smell of an oily rag to work on.2010, Gai Waterhouse, Gai In My Words, page 146:
  • There remains ABC Radio, which is the best known example of the relationship between the smell of an oily rag and the will to keep going.2012, John Clarke, A Dagg at My Table: Selected Writings, page 88:

Questions about smell of an oily rag

What does smell of an oily rag mean?
Smell of an oily rag means a very small amount, or the absolute minimum (usually of money).
What is smell of an oily rag in Bengali?
Smell of an oily rag in Bengali is খুব সামান্য পরিমাণ, বা সর্বনিম্ন প্রয়োজনীয় অংশ. See Smell of an oily rag meaning in Bengali.
How do you use smell of an oily rag in a sentence?
They're prone to giving away their rations and living off the smell of an oily rag.
What part of speech is smell of an oily rag?
Smell of an oily rag is a noun.

Words near smell of an oily rag in the dictionary

  1. smell like a rose
  2. smell like a tart's bedroom
  3. smell like a tart's boudoir
  4. smell like a tart's handbag
  5. smell like a tart's handkerchief
  6. smell of an oily rag
  7. smell of the lamp
  8. smell of the shop
  9. smell one's own farts
  10. smell oneself
  11. smell out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smell of an oily rag (page history and authors); smell of an oily rag (Bengali Wiktionary) (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-smell of an oily rag.ogg.

Cite this entry: “smell of an oily rag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smell_of_an_oily_rag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.