Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
adjective
- ragged or shabby; disheveled.
- made up of mixed, often diverse, elements: a ragtag crowd.
noun
- derogatory the common people; rabble (esp in the phrase ragtag and bobtail)
also rag-tag, “ragged people collectively,” 1820, from rag (n.) + tag (n.); originally in expression rag-tag and bobtail “the rabble” (tag-rag and bobtail is found in 1650s), with bobtail an old 17c. word for “cur.” Tag and rag was “very common in 16-17th c.” [OED]