ragdoll

See also: rag doll, Ragdoll, and rag-doll

English

A ragdoll (sense 1).

Etymology

From rag doll.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

ragdoll (plural ragdolls)

2. A modern American breed of domestic cat with a longhair colourpoint coat that relaxes completely when picked up.

   Alternative form: Ragdoll

3. (computer graphics, video games) A model consisting of a set of connected rigid bodies that can collapse in a loose, natural manner.
   • 2007, Ian Millington, Game physics engine development, page 401:

     In this chapter I'll give you a taste of some of the most popular applications for physics: ragdolls, breakable objects, and movie-style explosions.

   • 2008, Steve Swink, Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation, page 333:

     It is, in itself, a beautiful little game, but what it really indicates is a new way to create game controls: by simulating muscles rather than arbitrary forces. The rig in Ski Stunt Simulator is a controlled, active ragdoll.

4. Alternative form of rag doll (“doll made from cloth”).
   • 1992, Edward Power, “Adam & Eve”, in Patrick Cotter, editor, The Cloverdale Anthology of Irish Poetry 1992, Cork: The Three Spires Press, →ISBN, page 49:

     Eve came and tea’d with ragdolls, her children. She was strict with them. My tin soldiers weren’t fit company. […] Now she looks like one of her old ragdolls. O where have my tin soldiers gone?

   • 2006, Heather Doherty, Goody Bledsoe, Ottawa, Ont.: Oberon Press, →ISBN, page 25:

     Aunt Jackie looked like one of Fleda’s old ragdolls after the play was done—couldn’t stand if she wanted to.

   • 2015, Kathleen Clauson, “Tips for Starting Your Own Dream Business on eBay and Etsy in Thirty Days or Less”, in Carol Smallwood, editor, Women, Work, and the Web: How the Web Creates Entrepreneurial Opportunities, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, part I (Fostering Change), page 83:

     Let’s imagine your dream business is to sell homemade ragdolls inspired by an old ragdoll that was made by your great-grandmother in France.

Derived terms

• ragdoll physics

Translations

cat breed

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 布偶貓／布偶猫 (zh) (Bù'ǒumāo)

• Esperanto: ragdola kato
• French: ragdoll (fr) m
• Italian: gatto Ragdoll
• Japanese: ラグドール (Ragudōru)
• Russian: рэгдо́лл m (rɛgdóll)

Verb

ragdoll (third-person singular simple present ragdolls, present participle ragdolling, simple past and past participle ragdolled)

1. (intransitive, skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing, video games) To be flung about, such that a person or character has an appearance like that of a rag doll that is flung about.
2. (intransitive) To move, roll, fall, etc., in the manner of a rag doll.
   • 2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 86:

     I was so tired that potholes, fumes and noise aside, I slept regardless, my head rag-dolling from side to side.

3. (transitive) To fling about, such as to cause a person or character to have an appearance like that of a rag doll that is flung about.
   • 2015, Kent Russell, I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son, Corsair, Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN:

     “Manhandle” isn’t the term for what he’s doing. It’s something more desperate, the way he’s clutching and yanking and pawing at him—our guy is ragdolling his antagonist.

   • 2017, Kevin Hardcastle, In the Cage, Biblioasis, →ISBN:

     They worked from the clinch against the ringposts and Daniel handfought to get the Thai Plum, one hand clasped over the other behind the other man’s neck, and there he pinched his elbows together and ragdolled Jung Woo, stepped wide and flung him across the canvas, pulled him back to where knees could be landed if they’d been thrown.

   • 2020, Jerry “Teabag” Hack, Memoir of a Hockey Nobody: They Said I Couldn’t Make the NHL, So I Went Out and Proved Them Right!, Tellwell Talent, →ISBN:

     The next time we played Milestone, this time at home, Rob got kicked out of the game in the first period for fighting. It wasn’t much of a fight. The guy wasn’t exactly hellfire on skates. Rob and him dropped their gloves, and Rob proceeded to ragdoll the guy. I don’t think the guy even got a punch in.

   • 2023, Sk Alham Zain, Fabricated Realities: Short-Stories from the Past, Present, and Future, BlueRose Publishers, →ISBN, page 37:

     The storm was brutal. It ragdolled my skinny body and tossed me all over the vessel until it hurled me right at Captain Vex’s cabin door.

Alternative forms

• rag-doll