Etymology From earlier tag-rag and tag and rag, from rag + tag.
1
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.
2
Very diverse; having irregular and dissimilar components.
The guerrillas were a ragtag band of local thugs, former soldiers, displaced farmers, and political idealists.
ragtag
noun
Etymology From earlier tag-rag and tag and rag, from rag + tag.
1
A shabby, unkempt person.
Near-synonym: ragbag
The small group of ragtags, who had followed him to the cave a day prior had arrived and kept a short distance away.2013, Casper Parks, Ages Past: The Isolation, page 258: