Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

ragpicker

American  
[rag-pik-er] / ˈrægˌpɪk ər /

noun

  1. a person who picks up rags and other waste material from the streets, refuse heaps, etc., for a livelihood.

Etymology

Origin of ragpicker

First recorded in 1855–60; rag 1 + picker

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He was as frugal as a ragpicker, carefully kept a record of each shilling tip, constantly worried about money.

From Time Magazine Archive

Employment: ragpicker, scrap metal dealer, entrepreneur, double agent.

From Time Magazine Archive

She likes to dress like a ragpicker; the baron makes her buy the latest imported fineries.

From Time Magazine Archive

A Tribune story in 1936 showed a ragpicker in a gutter scooping up Roosevelt buttons which Party workers presumably could not persuade anybody to wear.

From Time Magazine Archive

Never as the ditch-digger and ragpicker Mrs. Lapham was always suggesting to him.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.