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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
Fran Ruiz, Space.com, 7 May 2025
That pairing that was so celebrated and so feared, that team that gets so much attention, was no match for a ragtag batch of underdogs who appear to be finding themselves at just the right time.
—Jon Krawczynski, New York Times, 1 May 2025
Exactly 250 years ago today, ragtag Patriot militias engaged British Army regulars at Lexington and Concord in what would become the first battle of the Revolutionary War, one against the tyranny of a single authority wantonly imposing his will on the public.
—New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 19 Apr. 2025
Nor had the West anticipated that the Houthis in Yemen, a supposedly ragtag militia that had received a large arsenal of missiles from Tehran, would be capable of bringing global shipping in the Red Sea to a near standstill.
—Foreign Affairs, 25 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ragtag
Cite this Entry
“Ragtag.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ragtag. Accessed 21 May. 2025.
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ragtag
adjective
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