devil vs rag

devil

verb
  • To annoy or bother. 

  • To work as a ‘devil’; to work for a lawyer or writer without fee or recognition. 

  • To prepare a sidedish of shelled halved boiled eggs to whose extracted yolks are added condiments and spices, which mixture then is placed into the halved whites to be served. 

  • To make like a devil; to invest with the character of a devil. 

  • To grill with cayenne pepper; to season highly in cooking, as with pepper. 

  • To finely grind cooked ham or other meat with spices and condiments. 

noun
  • A wicked or naughty person, or one who harbors reckless, spirited energy, especially in a mischievous way; usually said of a young child. 

  • A barren, unproductive and unused area. 

  • A Tasmanian devil. 

  • A printer's assistant. Also (India) "a poltergeist that haunts printing works". 

  • A dish, as a bone with the meat, broiled and excessively peppered; a grill with Cayenne pepper. 

  • A fictional image of a man, usually red or orange in skin color; with a set of horns on his head, a pointed goatee and a long tail and carrying a pitchfork; that represents evil and portrayed to children in an effort to discourage bad behavior. 

  • A person, especially a man; used to express a particular opinion of him, usually in the phrases poor devil and lucky devil. 

  • A dust devil. 

  • A machine for tearing or cutting rags, cotton, etc. 

  • An endurance event where riders who fall behind are periodically eliminated. 

  • An evil creature, the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. 

  • The bad part of the conscience; the opposite to the angel. 

  • Hell. 

  • A thing that is awkward or difficult to understand or do. 

name
  • The chief devil; Satan. 

rag

verb
  • To scold or tell off; to torment; to banter. 

  • To dance to ragtime music. 

  • To play or compose (a piece, melody, etc.) in syncopated time. 

  • To drive a car or another vehicle in a hard, fast or unsympathetic manner. 

  • To decorate (a wall, etc.) by applying paint with a rag. 

  • To become tattered. 

  • To tease or torment, especially at a university; to bully, to haze. 

  • To cut or dress roughly, as a grindstone. 

  • To break (ore) into lumps for sorting. 

noun
  • A poor, low-ranking kicker. 

  • A society run by university students for the purpose of charitable fundraising. 

  • A shabby, beggarly fellow; a ragamuffin. 

  • A coarse kind of rock, somewhat cellular in texture; ragstone. 

  • A ragtime song, dance or piece of music. 

  • A curtain of various kinds. 

  • A sail, or any piece of canvas. 

  • Sanitary napkins, pads, or other materials used to absorb menstrual discharge. 

  • A piece of old cloth, especially one used for cleaning, patching, etc.; a tattered piece of cloth; a shred or tatter. 

  • A newspaper or magazine, especially one whose journalism is considered to be of poor quality. 

  • Tattered clothes. 

  • A ragged edge in metalworking. 

How often have the words devil and rag occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )