Scrag (skrag), n. [Cf. dial. Sw. skraka a great dry tree, a long, lean man, Gael. sgreagach dry, shriveled, rocky. See Shrink, and cf. Scrog, Shrag, n.]
1.
Something thin, lean, or rough; a bony piece; especially, a bony neckpiece of meat; hence, humorously or in contempt, the neck.
Lady MacScrew, who . . . serves up a scrag of mutton on silver.
Thackeray.
2.
A rawboned person. [Low] Halliwell.
3.
A ragged, stunted tree or branch.
Scrag whale (Zoöl.), a North Atlantic whalebone whale (Agaphelus gibbosus). By some it is considered the young of the right whale.
© Webster 1913
Scrag (?), v. t. [Cf. Scrag.]
To seize, pull, or twist the neck of; specif., to hang by the neck; to kill by hanging. [Colloq.]
An enthusiastic mob will scrag me to a certainty the day war breaks out.
Pall Mall Mag.
© Webster 1913