or raff, raffle, subs. (old).—1. Refuse, lumber; (2) the mob: spec. (Oxford University) TOWN (q.v.) as opposed to GOWN (q.v.), or vice versâ; and (3) booty: as adj. = worthless. Whence RAFF-MERCHANT = a marine-store dealer; RAFFISH = disreputable; RAFFISHNESS = scampishness. As verb. RAFF (or RAFFLE) = to live filthily, to PIG IT (q.v.). RAFFLE-COFFIN = ‘a ruffian, ribald fellow.’—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785).
d. 1210. W. MAP, Appendix, 340.
| And maken of the rym and RAF, | |
| Suche gylours for pompe and pride. |
c. 1337. MANNING, Translation of a French Poem [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 21. The French words are quash … RIFF AND RAFF].
14[?]. MS. [Lincoln, A. i. 17, fol. 148].
| Ilk a manne agayne his gud he gaffe, | |
| That he had tane with RYFE AND RAFFE. |
1531–47. COPLAND, The Hye-way to the Spyttel-hous [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, IV. 41]. And euer haunteth among such RYF RAF.
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Gentaglia, common base people, RIFF RAFF, skum of the earth. Ibid., Ciarpame, trash, RIFRAFFE, baggage things, pelfe, things of no woorth, luggage.
d. 1677. BARROW, Unity of the Church. The synod of Trent was convened to settle a RAFF of errors and superstitions.
1709. HEARNE, Diary, 10 Sept. He has his RIFF-RAFF notes upon Lycophron.
1847. THACKERAY, Vanity Fair, xxix. There is no town of any mark in Europe but it has its little colony of English RAFFS.
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 325. ‘People, you see,’ he said, ‘wont buy their “accounts” of RAFF; they won’t have them of any but respectable people.’
1884. W. C. RUSSELL, Jack’s Courtship, xvii. Her main deck was a surface of straw, dirt, wet, and what sailors call RAFFLE.
1886. Daily Telegraph, 1 April. Shipping all sorts of sea-faring RIFF-RAFF.
1888. KIPLING, Departmental Ditties, ‘The Galley.’ And the topsmen clear the RAFFLE.
