Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A fluttering rag; a tatter hanging or flapping from a garment.
- noun Same as
rag-tag : often in the phrase tag-rag and bobtail. Seetag , n., 3.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- The lowest class of people; the rabble. Cf. Rag, tag, and bobtail, under
bobtail .
Etymologies
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Examples
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By this time Mr. Clarke had made such good use of his time in explaining the law to his audience, and displaying the great wealth and unbounded liberality of Sir Launcelot Greaves, that he had actually brought over to his sentiments the constable and the commonalty, tag-rag, and bob-tail, and even staggered the majority of the farmers, who, at first, had breathed nothing but defiance and revenge.
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If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man.
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Like everything that falls from her pen, it is pert, shallow, and conceited, a farrago of ignorance, indecency, and blasphemy, a tag-rag and bob-tail style of writing -- like a harlequin's jacket. '
Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century George Paston
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It must be a quaint scene; the hack-cabman who drives you to the door will get a boy to look after his shay, and go in with you; tag-rag and bob-tail, and all their family, go in precisely as they like; neither soap nor brush is a necessary prelude.
Lands of the Slave and the Free Cuba, the United States, and Canada Henry A. Murray
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I remember going into an ice-saloon, just before I embarked for England; the room on the ground-floor was one hundred and fifty feet long by forty broad; rows of pillars on each side were loaded to the most outrageous extent with carving and gilding, and the ceiling was to match; below that was another room, a little smaller, and rather less gaudy; both were crowded with the most tag-rag and bob-tail mixture of people.
Lands of the Slave and the Free Cuba, the United States, and Canada Henry A. Murray
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I'm a witness to the perfect joy and satisfaction of a single life -- with a tail of human tag-rag hanging on.
Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary W. P. Livingstone
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My hero was there in glory, followed about by an innumerable tag-rag and bobtail, and I am afraid that on two occasions at least he was tempted to swagger and
The Making Of A Novelist An Experiment In Autobiography David Christie Murray
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Preceded by a drummer and accompanied by a jeering rabble, among whom the urchins and all the tag-rag and bobtail of the town mustered in great force, the figure was carried about by the flickering light of torches to the discordant din of shovels and tongs, pots and pans, horns and kettles, mingled with hootings, groans, and hisses.
Chapter 28. The Killing of the Tree-Spirit. § 2. Burying the Carnival 1922
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Preceded by a drummer and accompanied by a jeering rabble, among whom the urchins and all the tag-rag and bobtail of the town mustered in great force, the figure was carried about by the flickering light of torches to the discordant din of shovels and tongs, pots and pans, horns and kettles, mingled with hootings, groans, and hisses.
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The women rallied round Walker because he was a temperance candidate, whereas the tag-rag rolled up _en masse_ for Henderson, who shouted free drinks and carried the publican's flag.
Some Everyday Folk and Dawn Miles Franklin 1916
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