Meaning & use
riffraff
Last updated
Meaning
nounsingulardisapproving
People regarded by the speaker as worthless, badly behaved, or socially inferior, considered as a group.
Grammar: Takes a singular verb and has no normal plural: the riffraff was, not *riffraffs.
Patterns
- the riffraff
- treat someone as riffraff
- riffraff from somewhere
The club owner spoke as if every visitor were riffraff.
She refused to dismiss the crowd as riffraff.
He called the neighborhood riffraff, though he had never met anyone there.
Common combinations
- treat someone as riffraff
- Do not treat people as riffraff because they are poor.
- the local riffraff
- The notice made an unfair threat to remove the local riffraff.
- riffraff and beggars
- The old sign listed riffraff and beggars as unwelcome.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rabble
- Rabble stresses a noisy, disorderly crowd; riffraff stresses low worth in the speaker's judgment.
- scum
- Scum is much stronger and often offensive, meaning the worst people according to the speaker.
- hoi polloi
- Hoi polloi means ordinary people, often with an ironic or snobbish tone rather than direct abuse.
Opposites
Word family
- riff-raff noun
- A hyphenated spelling of the same disapproving collective noun.
Commonly confused: riffraff or ragtag?
riffraff vs ragtag
Ragtag describes a shabby, uneven group or mixture; riffraff is a harsher judgment about low social worth.
Practice
Choose the natural, grammatical sentence.
Choose one answer.
Riffraff is a collective singular noun with no regular plural, so it follows 'as' without an or many and takes singular agreement. The plural forms riffraffs are not standard.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “riffraff”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.