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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
Richard Edwards, Space.com, 3 Mar. 2026
Paul Thomas Anderson’s ragtag revolutionary drama took top honors Saturday night at the 37th annual Producers Guild Awards, setting it on course to triumph in two weeks at the Academy Awards.
—ABC News, 1 Mar. 2026
Vahid kidnaps the man, nicknamed Peg-Leg, in a white van, and collects a ragtag team of former detainees from across Tehran to try to certify his identity.
—Cora Engelbrecht, New Yorker, 1 Mar. 2026
How this proudly low-budget effort managed to license those tunes is as curious as so much else in this ragtag oddity.
—Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 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 7 Mar. 2026.
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ragtag
adjective
