ragtag means unkempt, shabby, or in a state of disrepair. It carries an Arena rating of 1782, earned across 25 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, ragtag ranks #495 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #705 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,963 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #1,991 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
Why “ragtag” is a great word
Ragtag describes a group or collection as disorganized, unkempt, or composed of a diverse and irregular assortment of people or things. It emerges from the earlier phrase ‘tag-rag’ and ‘rag and tag’, combining ‘rag’ (a scrap of cloth) and ‘tag’ (a hanging shred or end), originally in the expression ‘rag-tag and bobtail’ referring to the common rabble, with the compound word ‘ragtag’ first attested in the early 19th century. Unlike “motley,” which emphasizes a varied but not necessarily impoverished mixture, or “elite,” its direct, polished antithesis, ragtag carries the specific scent of shabbiness and makeshift unity. It is the straggling column of refugees bound by shared flight, the patchwork militia with mismatched weapons, or the treasured heap of salvaged parts in a tinker’s shed—a testament to what endures, and what can be assembled, when polish and order are the first luxuries to be forsaken.
Etymology
From earlier tag-rag and tag and rag, from rag + tag.
adj
- Unkempt, shabby, or in a state of disrepair.e.g.“He liked to wear an old ragtag coat that was so threadbare that he'd get sunburned through it.”
- Very diverse; having irregular and dissimilar components.e.g.“The guerrillas were a ragtag band of local thugs, former soldiers, displaced farmers, and political idealists.”
noun
- A shabby, unkempt person.e.g.“Near-synonym: ragbag”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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