Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Ragged people collectively; the scum of the populace; the rabble: sometimes used attributively.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • "There were boots on the ground: They were Libyan flip flops and Libyan running shoes," he said, referring to the rag-tag rebel forces that slowly, and after heavy casualties, developed enough combat prowess.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed PAUL KORING 2011

  • "There were boots on the ground: They were Libyan flip flops and Libyan running shoes," he said, referring to the rag-tag rebel forces that slowly, and after heavy casualties, developed enough combat prowess.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed PAUL KORING 2011

  • "There were boots on the ground: They were Libyan flip flops and Libyan running shoes," he said, referring to the rag-tag rebel forces that slowly, and after heavy casualties, developed enough combat prowess.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed PAUL KORING 2011

  • "There were boots on the ground: They were Libyan flip flops and Libyan running shoes," he said, referring to the rag-tag rebel forces that slowly, and after heavy casualties, developed enough combat prowess.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed PAUL KORING 2011

  • Yet U.S. policy in Afghanistan, borne out of ignorance and/or willful neglect, appears bent on doing both as America's miscalculations continue to breathe life into a rag-tag acephalic insurgency - misbegotten strategies that shall likely yield a foreign military presence in Central Asia until the end times.

    Michael Hughes: Saving Afghanistan Requires Smashing Dangerous Delusions Michael Hughes 2010

  • We never could have anticipated that our rag-tag public civics lesson would have inspired such a deeply personal, neighborhood catharsis.

    Jacqueline Edelberg: It Gets Better, Starting in Elementary School Jacqueline Edelberg 2011

  • It's easy to tell the difference between an experienced larper and a newbie; one wears an impressively detailed costume that wouldn't look out of place in the Lord of the Rings movies, the other wears a rag-tag jumble of second-hand hippie clothes.

    What is larp? nathreee 2010

  • We never could have anticipated that our rag-tag public civics lesson would have inspired such a deeply personal, neighborhood catharsis.

    Jacqueline Edelberg: It Gets Better, Starting in Elementary School Jacqueline Edelberg 2011

  • They couldn't maintain international legitimacy by invading a sovereign country, so, on the advice of their Ugandan allies, the Rwandans put together a rag-tag band of anti-Mobutu rebels to front the operation—among them the washed-up old revolutionary Laurent Kabila, whom Che Guevara had tried and failed to train in the art of war.

    The Triumph of Fear Douglas Rogers 2011

  • As far as characters go, the “rag-tag” group of “heroes” in the show are a bizarre group of friends that have undeniable on-screen chemistry.

    The Great Unkown – TV that you should know « Giant Killer Squid - Film, Comics, News, Reviews and more 2009

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