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Breaking Down Ragtag
Tag and rag was a relatively common expression in the 16th and 17th centuries, and it was often used pejoratively to refer to members of the lower classes of society. By the 18th century, the phrase had been expanded to ragtag and bobtail. That expression could mean either "the lower classes" or "the entire lot of something" (as opposed to just the more desirable parts—the entire unit of an army, for example, not just its more capable soldiers). Something described as ragtag and bobtail, then, was usually common and unspectacular. Ragtag and bobtail was eventually shortened to ragtag, the adjective we know today, which can describe an odd mixture that is often hastily assembled or second-rate.
Examples of ragtag in a Sentence
Daniel Brook, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
The movement took hold in the fringes of society among a ragtag group of misfits disillusioned with a postrecession world and in search of both social and political change.
—Clara Molot, Vanity Fair, 17 Mar. 2026
For the past 35 years, Colleen Murphy has been in the front ranks of protecting our right to know, many of those years as the shrewd general of the ragtag good government army.
—Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 7 Mar. 2026
He-Man is assisted by a ragtag assortment of toy-friendly sidekicks known as the Heroic Warriors; Skeletor's stooges are the similarly imaginatively titled the Evil Warriors.
—Richard Edwards, Space.com, 3 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ragtag
Cite this Entry
“Ragtag.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ragtag. Accessed 27 Mar. 2026.
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ragtag
adjective
