smell of an oily rag

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.

1896, Dayrell Davies, "Sport with the Brigands of Macedonia," The Badminton Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Longmans, Green, and Co., no. XII (July to December 1896), v. III, pg. 65

Full of bog, goes anywhere you want to go, don't pay for insurance, runs on the smell of an oily rag.

1998, Ian Shaw, quoted in Richard Strauss, Up for Rego: A Social History of the Holden Kingswood, Pluto Press Australia, pg. 33

... they did not prepare someone for the smell-of-an-oily-rag budgets and ratings-driven world of Australian commercial television.

1999, Stephen Alomes, When London Calls: The Expatriation of Australian Creative Artists, page 133

They're prone to giving away their rations and living off the smell of an oily rag.

2008, Susan Napier, Accidental Mistress, page 59

"We did it on the smell of an oily rag", says Danielle Kootman of Tourism Queensland.

2009 May 1, Nick Bryant, “'Selling' Queensland with a dream job”, in BBC News