scrag
verb
[ skraɡ ]
• handle roughly; beat up.
• "my brothers were hoping he'd put a foot wrong so they could scrag him"
• kill by strangling or hanging.
• "many an honester man than her has been scragged"
scrag
noun
• an unattractively thin person or animal.
• "his companion was a thin scrag of a man"
• a person's neck.
Origin:
mid 16th century (as a noun): perhaps an alteration of Scots and northern English crag ‘neck’. The verb (mid 18th century) developed the sense ‘handle roughly’ from the early use ‘hang, strangle’.
