as in masses
people looked down upon as ignorant and of the lowest class
locals complained that rental housing would attract the ragtag and bobtail to their well-groomed suburb
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ragtag and bobtail
Noun
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The proceeding will also serve as a public reckoning in a case long viewed as one of Austin’s gravest miscarriages of justice — effectively functioning as an official acknowledgment that the men were wrongfully accused and prosecuted.—
Austin Sanders,
Austin American Statesman,
18 Feb. 2026 -
When, instead, another Black Democrat from Chicago, Barack Obama, headed toward the Democratic nomination in 2008, Jackson’s frustration spilled into public with a vulgar criticism of Obama caught on microphone.—
Johanna Neuman,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Feb. 2026
Noun
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That combination makes for a happy society and ensures a populace that drives a productive economy for years to come.—
Alexis Akwagyiram,
semafor.com,
20 Feb. 2026
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The announcers need to study intensely, learning details not only about an athlete, but what a particular sport means to the populace of a country halfway around the world.—
Brian Steinberg,
Variety,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
All that loot pumped out of the Armenian proletariat, says the gaur, and for what.—
Sean Williams,
Harpers Magazine,
27 Jan. 2026
-
Severin, on the other hand, represents the revolutionary proletariat.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
16 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Tanner spoke in a blend of political rabble-rousing and entrepreneurial uplift.—
Rachel Monroe,
New Yorker,
21 Jan. 2026
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There’s something quite magical, really, about millions of bits of colorful paper flying like snow through the air over a raucous rabble.—
Lisa Gutierrez,
Kansas City Star,
31 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Investigators used genealogy sites to build a family tree and pulled trash from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s parents to make a connection.—
Ed White,
Fortune,
20 Feb. 2026
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The cunning canine can be seen carrying a large bag of trash with his teeth and gingerly leaving it on the roadside, according to video released by the Catania municipality Thursday.—
Barbie Latza Nadeau,
CNN Money,
20 Feb. 2026
Noun
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In matchup that didn’t have much separation for most of the game, the back-and-forth contest ended in a rout.—
Shreyas Laddha,
Kansas City Star,
21 Feb. 2026
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Right to Dream grad Bryan Zamble punctuated the rout with one final goal.—
Kyle Kensing,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
21 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Spray your cleanser of choice directly onto the soap scum.—
Louise Parks,
Martha Stewart,
17 Feb. 2026
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Small-scale tiles are hard to clean given the number of grout lines that trap scum.—
Maria Sabella,
The Spruce,
4 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Which is to say, the people in the streets weren’t riffraff running amok but activists with aims.—
Daniel Immerwahr,
New Yorker,
18 Aug. 2025
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Sometimes Evie imagined the land, the world, the city around her as a cartoon neighborhood, the houses’ edges elastic like balloons, their walls filling up and bloating and then, all at once, popping: ejecting out the riffraff and trash in a huff.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Aug. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Ragtag and bobtail.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ragtag%20and%20bobtail. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
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