Synonyms for riffraff
- commonality
- commoners
- gang
- gathering
- mob
- outcast
- ring
- scum
- trash
- undesirables
- vermin
- dregs of society
- hoi polloi
- lower class
- one-percenters
- rank and file
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR RIFFRAFF
Both in town and country, the riffraff of the houseboat element are in disfavor.
We'll destroy Marsport before we'll give in to a doped-up crowd of riffraff!
No riffraff friend of mine, but a regular NUN—a saint—do you hear?
It brought to the scene a mixed throng of the riffraff of the camp.
A throng of the riffraff of the Street swarmed in front of the building.
Where are those Cubs and Pirates and all the rest of that riffraff?
Ample proof, however, exists that they were but the riffraff of the Order.
It was easy to tell the old-timers from the riffraff of newcomers.
All the world had turned to California; its riffraff and offscourings as well as its true men.
If he was of the riffraff of the streets, as his companions were, he was somehow different.
WORD ORIGIN
also riff-raff, late 15c., from earlier rif and raf "one and all, everybody, every scrap," also "sweepings, refuse" (mid-14c.), from Old French rif et raf, from rifler "to spoil, strip" (see rifle (v.)). Second element from raffler "carry off," related to rafle "plundering," or from raffer "to snatch, to sweep together" (see raffle (n.)).