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  1. riffraff love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. People regarded as disreputable or worthless.
  2. n. Rubbish; trash.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Scraps; refuse; rubbish; trash.
  2. n. The rabble.
  3. n. Sport; fun.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The rabble; crowds; the common people.
  2. n. low class, ghetto, indigent

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Sweepings; refuse; the lowest order of society.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. disparaging terms for the common people

Etymologies

  1. Middle English riffe raffe, from rif and raf, one and all, from Anglo-Norman rif et raf, rifle et rafle : Old French rifler, to rifle; see rifle2 + Old French raffler, to carry off (from raffle, act of seizing; see raffle1). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “I think the Campbells using the term riffraff (one word by the way) was unfortunate, because from context they mean criminals and the term riffraff has additional social class connotations that are inappropriate.”

    New Haven Independent

  • “And yet, for a city of this size, more than the usual combing of the riffraff is necessary.”

    Lawgivers

  • “The titled riffraff that had adorned the Louis XV-du”

    The French Revolution A Short History

  • “I hope to... work with the alternative people, all the so-called riffraff, to give them legal representation that is not judgmental.”

    Archive 2007-09-01

  • “Riffraff of the riffraff are his friends now, same as they were here.”

    The Conquest of Canaan

  • “I resent being called riffraff because I go to a casino.”

    seMissourian.com Headlines

  • “True, but think how much better off we are now that our universities accept "riffraff" such as women, the poor, and the non-white.”

    David Weinberger: Andrew Keen's Best Case

  • “And to top it all off, they're so incompetant at keeping out the "riffraff" that they let the most famous atheist in the world in!”

    Creationism and Censorship

  • “They complained that their beautiful street would be ruined by the kind of riffraff that had to live in a single room for weekly rent.”

    Simon & Schuster: A Red Death

  • “Caramon thought the episode was funny, however, and for the next mile he minced along the side of the wagon on his tiptoes, his handkerchief covering his face, feigning to be disgusted by them all and shouting "riffraff" in falsetto tones.”

    The Soulforge

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synonyms (5)

Words with the same meaning

  1. sweepings
  1. refuse
  1. mob
  1. disreputable
  1. worthless

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. folks
  1. folk
  1. common people

hyponyms (2)

Words that are more specific

  1. trash
  1. scum

same context (10)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. draff
  2. indigents
  1. offal
  2. dross
  1. wastrel
  2. proletariate
  1. debauchee
  2. bikers
  1. troublemaker
  2. feculence

reverse dictionary (5)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. rifraf
  1. raff
  1. roughscuff
  1. scaff-raff
  1. canaille

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‘riffraff’ has been looked up 1815 times, loved by 2 people, added to 29 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 12.