Definition
A very small amount, or the absolute minimum (usually of money).
In Context
- "We have found them in the remote corners of Asia Minor, sans souliers, sans culottes, often in rags, living on the smell of an oily rag or a raw onion, trying their best to preserve order where their own miserable officials have brought shame and disgrace upon their tarnished colours."
- "Full of bog, goes anywhere you want to go, don't pay for insurance, runs on the smell of an oily rag."
- "... they did not prepare someone for the smell-of-an-oily-rag budgets and ratings-driven world of Australian commercial television."
- "They're prone to giving away their rations and living off the smell of an oily rag."
- ""We did it on the smell of an oily rag", says Danielle Kootman of Tourism Queensland."
- "They had the smell of an oily rag to work on."
- "There remains ABC Radio, which is the best known example of the relationship between the smell of an oily rag and the will to keep going."