Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To sweep; snatch, draw, or huddle together; take by a promiscuous sweep.
- noun A promiscuous heap or collection; a jumble; a medley.
- noun Trashy material; lumber; rubbish; refuse.
- noun Abundance; affluence.
- noun A worthless or disorderly person; a rowdy; a scapegrace: now applied to students of Oxford by the townspeople.
- noun Collectively, worthless persons; the scum or sweepings of society; the rabble. Compare
riffraff . - Idle; dissolute.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To sweep, snatch, draw, or huddle together; to take by a promiscuous sweep.
- noun A promiscuous heap; a jumble; a large quantity; lumber; refuse.
- noun The sweepings of society; the rabble; the mob; -- chiefly used in the compound or duplicate,
riffraff . - noun A low fellow; a churl.
- noun [Prov. Eng.] a dealer in lumber and odd refuse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
promiscuous heap ; ajumble ; a large quantity;lumber ;refuse . - noun The common
rabble ormob ;riffraff . - noun A low fellow; a
churl .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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"Maybe, then, being part of the riff-raff is what I deserved."
Afterthoughts 2010
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January 11th, 2009 at 9: 02 am sungirl135 says: raff is a virgin and he is so nice
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A piece of advice - it gets even better once all the riff raff is voted off and it's an actual competition - i like blake and melinda myself.
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The old days of mingling with the riff raff is over.
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Apparently when he came back a few years later they were having a spell when there were some druggies entrenched in the place, a bad year or more, but the riff raff is gone now.
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You can’t keep the riff-raff away from the Oscars when the riff-raff is actually nominated, so when the hilarious song “Blame Canada” from the 1999 animated musical “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” received a Best Song nod, that meant the songwriters were automatically invited to the ceremony.
Eric’s Top 10 Outrageous Oscar Moments » Scene-Stealers 2008
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All people read nowadays is the Big Lists of the But Bigger Houses -- and they don't read ... they don't read the riff-raff, that is.
Afterthoughts 2010
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In view of the immense riff-raff, which is generally found in a port of entry of this size, the excesses of the mob might have assumed terrifying dimensions, had not the authorities remembered that the task entrusted to them was not exactly that of forming an honorary escort for the rioters, as had actually been the case in Kiev.
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume II From the death of Alexander I. until the death of Alexander III. (1825-1894) I. [Translator] Friedlaender 1900
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If our dress and bearing sheltered us generally from the suspicion of being "raff" (the name at that period for "snobs" [Footnote: "_Snobs_," and its antithesis, "_nobs_," arose among the internal factions of shoemakers perhaps ten years later.
The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc Thomas De Quincey 1822
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The Dims other problem is that Big tents can hold more riff-raff, so one winds up with a certain percentage of politicians trying to game the system.
Gallup Poll: Will Obama Ban Try To Ban The Sale of Handguns? 2009
ry commented on the word raff
see also riffraff, scaff-raff, raffish
July 21, 2019