rag doll

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noun

a stuffed doll, especially of cloth.

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of rag doll

First recorded in 1850–55

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use rag doll in a sentence

Then Ziegler tosses the buff LaBeouf around like a rag doll.
Sia and Shia LaBeouf’s Pedophilia Nontroversy Over ‘Elastic Heart’|Marlow Stern|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The woman who grasped Britain's unions by the neck and hurled them repeatedly against the wall, like some floppy rag doll.
How Margaret Thatcher Transformed British Politics|Tunku Varadarajan|April 8, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Even one little girl, without so much as a rag doll, can have a play-house.
The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping|Elizabeth Hale Gilman
On her way she picked up her rag doll, Maria Jane, and the little toy automobile.
The Cruise of the Noah's Ark|David Cory

She remembered the little rag doll that Granny had made her when she was a very little girl.
Boys and Girls of Colonial Days|Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
For all that the Rag Doll didn't think he was coming just then.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 108, February 16, 1895|Various
He was engaged in taking from its wrappings a peculiarly hideous rag-doll.
Mrs. Bindle|Hebert Jenkins

British Dictionary definitions for rag doll

Ragdoll

/ (ˈræɡˌdɒl) /

noun

a breed of large long-haired cat with blue eyes

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with rag doll

rag doll

A limp, ineffectual person, as in You won't get a decision from her; she's a rag doll when it comes to making up her mind. This expression transfers the limpness of a soft doll made from scraps of cloth to human behavior. [Mid-1800s]