Riffraff

//ˈɹɪfɹæf// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The rabble; crowds; people of a low, disreputable or undesirable class or position. derogatory, informal, uncountable, usually

    "They started charging a modest fee in an effort to keep the riffraff out."

  2. 2
    disparaging terms for the common people wordnet
  3. 3
    Sweepings; refuse. informal, uncountable, usually

Synonyms

All synonyms
rabblebilgebilgewatercanaillecanaillecarrion

Example

More examples

"They started charging a modest fee in an effort to keep the riffraff out."

Etymology

From Old French rif et raf (“one and all”), of Germanic origin. The first word is from rifler (“to scrape off”) and the last is from raffler, related to rafler (“to plunder”).

Related phrases

riff-raffy

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.