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Shabby vs Ragtag - What's the difference?

shabby | ragtag |

As adjectives the difference between shabby and ragtag

is that shabby is torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged while ragtag is unkempt, shabby, or in a state of disrepair.

shabby

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.}}
    They lived in a tiny apartment, with some old, shabby furniture.
  • Clothed with ragged, much worn, or soiled garments.
  • The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.
  • Mean; paltry; despicable.
  • shabby treatment

    Derived terms

    * shabby-genteel (Webster 1913)

    ragtag

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Unkempt, shabby, or in a state of disrepair.
  • :He liked to wear an old ragtag coat that was so threadbare that he'd get sunburned through it.
  • Very diverse; comprised of irregular and dissimilar components.
  • :The guerrillas were a ragtag band of local thugs, former soldiers, displaced farmers, and political idealists.
  • Synonyms

    * bedraggled, decrepit, motheaten, tattered * (composed of irregular or dissimilar components) motley, jumbled, patchwork, uneven