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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rug.

A partial covering for a floor.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɹʌɡ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Southern-England[ˈɹʷʌɡ]General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Southern-England/ˈɹɜɡ/[ˈɹʷɜɡ]

  1. A partial covering for a floor.

  2. A (usually thick) piece of fabric used for warmth (especially on a bed); a blanket.

    Australia · UK

  3. A kind of coarse, heavy frieze, formerly used for clothing.

    archaic · historical

  4. A cloak or mantle made of such a frieze.

    archaic · historical

  5. A person wearing a rug.

    obsolete · rare

  6. A cloth covering for a horse.

  7. A dense layer of natural vegetation that precludes the growth of crops.

    obsolete · rare

  8. The female pubic hair.

    slang

  9. A rough, woolly, or shaggy dog.

  10. A wig; a hairpiece.

    slang

  11. A dense growth of chest hair.

    colloquial

  12. Ellipsis of rughead.

    US · abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · ethnic · slang · slur
Where this word comes from

Uncertain; probably of North Germanic origin; perhaps inherited via Middle English *rugge (suggested by Middle English ruggy (“hairy, shaggy, bristly”) and rugged (“hairy, shaggy, rugged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“shagginess, tuft”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwō (“long wool”), probably related to *rūhaz (“rough”), related to English rag and rough. Cognate with dialectal Norwegian rugga (“coarse coverlet”), Swedish rugg (“rough entangled hair”), related to English rag and rough. Compare also Old English rȳhe (“rug, rough covering, blanket”).

verb/ˈɹʌɡ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Southern-England[ˈɹʷʌɡ]General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Southern-England/ˈɹɜɡ/[ˈɹʷɜɡ]

  1. To cover with a rug.

    transitive

  2. To pull roughly or hastily; to plunder; to spoil; to tear.

    Scotland · archaic

  3. Clipping of rug pull

    abbreviation · alt-of · clipping
Where this word comes from

Uncertain; probably of North Germanic origin; perhaps inherited via Middle English *rugge (suggested by Middle English ruggy (“hairy, shaggy, bristly”) and rugged (“hairy, shaggy, rugged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“shagginess, tuft”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwō (“long wool”), probably related to *rūhaz (“rough”), related to English rag and rough. Cognate with dialectal Norwegian rugga (“coarse coverlet”), Swedish rugg (“rough entangled hair”), related to English rag and rough. Compare also Old English rȳhe (“rug, rough covering, blanket”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.