subs. (old colloquial: long recognised).—A tattered vagabond; also as adj. and adv.—beggarly, ragged, disorderly. [In quot. 1383 = the Devil.]—B. E., c. 1696; HALLIWELL, 1847. Also RAGABOOT, RAG-SHAG, RAGABRASH, &c.
1383. LANGLAND, Piers Plowman, xxi. 283. Ac rys vp, RAGAMOFFIN · and reche me alle the barres.
1440. Promptorium Parvulorum, 421. RAGMANN, or he that goythe wyth iaggyd clothys (raggyd clothys, s.) Pannicius vel pannicia, UG. in pan.
1597. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., v. 3, 36. Fal. … I have led my RAGAMUFFINS where they are peppered.
1601. JONSON, The Poetaster, i. Here be the Emperor’s captains, you RAGAMUFFIN rascal, and not your comrades.
c. 1609. J. HEALEY, The Discovery of a New World, 81. They are the veriest Lacklatines, and the most Vnalphabetical RAGGABASHES that euer bred lowse.
1634. S. ROWLEY, The Noble Souldier, iv. 2. All rent and torne like a RAGGAMUFFIN.
1660. DRYDEN, Don Sebastian, iv. 2. Be not afraid, lady, to speak to these rude RAGGAMUFFINS.
1707. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, II. iii. 3. Autumn that RAGGAMUFFIN Thief That blows down ev’ry fading leaf.
1769–72. JUNIUS, Sin Stigmatized. The most unalphabetical RAGABRASHES that ever lived.
1771. SMOLLETT, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 29. The postilion … was not a shabby wretch like the RAGAMUFFIN who had driven them into Marlborough.
1887. Connecticut Courant, 7 July [Century]. While the RAGSHAGS were marching … [he] caught his foot in his ragged garment and fell.
