Chapter Races to Ragnarok of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Radegund Queen of the Amazons, “half like a man.” Getting the better of Sir Artegal in a single combat, she compelled him to dress in “woman's weeds,” with a white apron before him, and to spin flax. Britomart, being informed by Talus of his captivity, went to the rescue, cut off the Amazon's head, and liberated her knight. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, book v. 4-7.)
   St. Radegonde or Radegund, wife of Clothaire, King of France.
   St. Radegonde's lifted stone. A stone sixty feet in circumference, placed on five supporting stones, said by the historians of Poitou to have been so arranged in 1478, to commemorate a great fair held on the spot in the October of that year. The country people insist that Queen Radegonde brought the impost stone on her head, and the five uprights in her apron, and arranged them all as they appear to this day.

Radevore (3 syl.). Tapestry.

“This woful lady ylern'd had in youthe
So that she worken and embrowden kouthe,
And weven in stole [the loom] the radevore.
As hyt of wommen had be woved yore.”
Chaucer.

Radical An ultra-Liberal, verging on republican opinions. The term was first applied as a party name in 1818 to Henry Hunt, Major Cartwright, and others of the same clique, who wished to introduce radical reform in the representative system, and not merely to disfranchise and enfranchise a borough or two. Lord Bolingbroke, in his Discourses on Parties, says, “Such a remedy might have wrought a radical cure of the evil that threatens our constitution.”

Radiometer The name of an instrument invented by Crookes for measuring the mechanical effect of radiant energy. It is like a miniature anemometer, and is made to revolve by the action of light, the cups of the anemometer being replaced by discs coloured white on one side and black on the other, and the instrument is enclosed in a glass globe from which the air has been exhausted, so that no heat is transmitted.

Radit Usque ad Cutem He fleeced him to the skin; he sucked him dry. He shaved off all his hair (instead of only trimming it).

Rag A tatter, hence a remnant, hence a vagabond or ragamuffin.

“Lash hence these overweening rags of France.”
Shakespeare: Richard III., v. 3.

   Rag. A cant term for a farthing. Paper money not easily convertible is called “rag-money.”

“Money by me? Heart and good-will you might,
But surely, master, not a rag of money.”
Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors, iv. 4.

Rag (The). The Army and Navy Club. “The rag,” of course, is the flag.

“ `By the way, come and dine to-night at the Rag, said the major.”- Truth, Queer Story, April 1, 1886.

Rag-water Whisky. (Thieves? jargon.)

Rags of Antisthenes Rank pride may be seen peering through the rags of Antisthenes' doublet. (See Antisthenes. )

Rags and Jags Rags and tatters. A jagged edge is one that is toothed.

“Hark, hark! the dogs do bark,
The beggars are coming to town;
Some in rags and some in jags,
And some in silken gown.”
Nursery Rhyme.

Ragamuffin (French, maroufle). A muff or muffin is a poor thing of a creature, a “regular muff;” so that a ragamuffin is a sorry creature in rags.

“I have led my ragamuffins where they are peppered.”- Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., v. 3.

Ragged Robin A wild-flower. The word is used by Tennyson to mean a pretty damsel in ragged clothes.

“The prince
Hath picked a ragged robin from the hedge.”
Tennyson: Idylls of the King; Enid.

Raghu A legendary king of Oude, belonging to the dynasty of the Sun. The poem called the Raghu-vansa, in nineteen cantos, gives the history of these mythic kings.