riffraff
Syllables: riff·raff/ˈɹɪfɹæf/
riffraff noun: the rabble; crowds; people of a low, disreputable or undesirable class or position.
Noun
riffraff (usually uncountable, plural riffraffs)
- The rabble; crowds; people of a low, disreputable or undesirable class or position.
- They started charging a modest fee in an effort to keep the riffraff out.
- Agent Beeman (Noah Emmerich): I think we got him. / Special Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas): Who? / Agent Beeman: I-I-I don't know. The guy who killed Chris, the--the Russians, the whole damn thing maybe. / Special Agent Gaad: You want to sit down? / Agent Beeman: The guy from the salvage yard who...2013, “Only You” (20:08 from the start), in The Americans, season 1, episode 10
- Synonyms:
- canaille, commonality, commonalty, crowd, commonage, demos, everyone, general public, great unhosed, great unwashed
- Sweepings; refuse.
riffraff meaning in Kannada and Arabic
riffraff in Kannada
- ಪುಂಡು ಪೋಕರಿಗಳು, ಅಯೋಗ್ಯರು, ಕೀಳುಜನ, ಕಾಕಪೋಕರು, ಪೋಲಿಪಟಾಲಂಗಳು, ಕಳಪೆಯಾದದ್ದು
riffraff in Arabic
- the rabble
- رَعَاع raʕāʕ
Synonyms of riffraff
- canaille
- commonality
- commonalty
- crowd
- commonage
- demos
- everyone
- general public
- great unhosed
- great unwashed
19 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of riffraff
| plural | riffraffs |
|---|---|
| alternative form | riff-raff |
Origin of riffraff
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”).
Words formed from riffraff
Questions about riffraff
- What does riffraff mean?
- Riffraff means the rabble; crowds; people of a low, disreputable or undesirable class or position.
- What is riffraff in Kannada?
- Riffraff in Kannada is ಪುಂಡು ಪೋಕರಿಗಳು, ಅಯೋಗ್ಯರು, ಕೀಳುಜನ. See Riffraff meaning in Kannada.
- What part of speech is riffraff?
- Riffraff is a noun.
- How do you pronounce riffraff?
- Riffraff is pronounced /ˈɹɪfɹæf/.
- What is the plural of riffraff?
- The plural of riffraff is riffraffs.
Words near riffraff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: riffraff (page history and authors); riffraff (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-riffraff.wav.
Cite this entry: “riffraff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/riffraff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.