rag-picker

His garments might have been discarded by a rag-picker.

THE PRINCESS 2010

But the last one, an old rag-picker with a broken shoulder-blade, had been disposed of, and the first fragrant smoke wreaths had begun to curl about his head, when the gong of a hurrying ambulance came through the open window from the street, followed by the inevitable entry of the stretcher with its ghastly freight.

SEMPER IDEM 2010

Beach's particular loathing was reserved for Joseph Prescott, a pushy young rag-picker who played Beach off against Harriet Weaver in an attempt to scoop the world with his work on the great man's manuscripts before they could disappear into the giant maw of a university archive.

The Letters of Sylvia Beach edited by Keri Walsh 2010

The esteemed Mr. Reiner then called his pal, "super well-read," and explained, "He looks like a rag-picker sometimes -- but he's a highly intellectual, brilliant man."

Gregory Weinkauf: 2,000+ Words for the 2,000 Year Old Man: Mel Brooks Is Saluted by the Academy 2009

Three of them were portresses, and the fourth was a rag-picker with her basket on her back.

Les Miserables 2008

In Paris, even the rag-pickers are sybarites; Diogenes would have loved to be a rag-picker of the Place

Les Miserables 2008

The rag-picker cried: — “You malicious, bare-pawed little wretch!”

Les Miserables 2008

This rag-picker was a grateful creature, and she smiled, with what a smile! on the three portresses.

Les Miserables 2008

In this open-air society, it is the rag-picker who salutes and the portress who patronizes.

Les Miserables 2008

He used to either be sleeping on the footpath outside Kamanwala Chambers or lying down on his sponge bed provided by his rag-picker owners in the lane opposite Strand.

Kalu and Kalu Abodh 2006