chew the rag

"I'll be depressive soon enough, but while you eat your candy just allow me to chew the rag; there's a kind of substance in it."

Here they sleep, eat, wait for trains, and "chew the rag."

The gossip of scientists who get together and chew the rag is the lifeblood of physics.

There was time enough for him to 'chew the rag' when he had got the length of keeping a regular 'wheel and look out.'

Swiggle me, 'ow 'e can chew the rag!