toe-rag

toe-rag (plural toe-rags)

1. (archaic) A cloth worn wrapped around the foot instead of a sock. A footwrap.
   • 1864, “an Ex-Military Officer” (J. F. Mortlock), Experiences of a Convict, Transported in 1843 for Twenty-One Years: An Autobiographical Memoir, part II, Richard Barrett (printer), page 80:

     Stockings being unknown, some luxurious men wrapped round their feet a piece of old shirting, called, in language more expressive than elegant, a “toe-rag”.

   • 1891, Rolf Boldrewood, A Sydney-side Saxon, Macmillan and Co., page 157:

     One of his feet had been bleeding, I could see from his ‘toe-rag,’ which stuck out on one side.

   • 1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section XLIV:

     Steady old Väinämöinen / yonder crept with no shoes on / without toe-rags he tiptoed […] .

2. Alternative spelling of toerag (“A worthless or despicable person, a tramp or vagrant”)
   • 1913, D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Penguin Lawrence Edition, Penguin, published 1994, →ISBN, page 213:

     “I’ll bet ’er wor a toe-rag,” said Morel, following up his joke. ¶ “Don’t you be so cheeky about a queen,” said Annie.

• Ortega, gear to, Goater, garote, ergato-, Argote, OR gate, orgeat, Tagore