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ragpicker

[rag-pik-er]
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noun
  1. a person who picks up rags and other waste material from the streets, refuse heaps, etc., for a livelihood.
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Origin of ragpicker

First recorded in 1855–60; rag1 + picker
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for ragpicker

Historical Examples

  • Love is always tragic, even the amours of a ragpicker and a gutter-wench.

    Painted Veils

    James Huneker

  • The play, which was called The Ragpicker, can still be seen in the Ghetto.

    The Spirit of the Ghetto

    Hutchins Hapgood

  • He looks like a ragpicker, and has the eye of Solomon and the devil in one.

  • His wife was a ragpicker and a bawd, but she had plenty of shrewdness.

    Penguin Island

    Anatole France

  • He engaged the lamplighter of the theatre to wear the ragpicker's costume for three weeks, so that it might be suitably dirty.