rags
Britishplural noun
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torn, old, or shabby clothing
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cotton or linen cloth waste used in the manufacture of rag paper
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informal
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from poverty to great wealth
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( as modifier )
a rags-to-riches tale
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informal best clothes; finery
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.
It involves rags and a lot of dirty water.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 30, 2026
If your social-worker friend envies your designer clothes, you don’t have to ditch your Prada for rags, but it’s probably better not to festoon your outfit with your biggest diamond.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026
Swift opens her track with: “When I found you, you were young, wayward, lost in the cold / Pulled up to you in the Jag’, turned your rags to gold.”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 3, 2025
"This walkthrough immersive experience has some seated scenes and themed bars, giving you a multi-sensory journey through Elvis' rags to riches story from country boy to musical icon," it adds.
From BBC • Jul. 22, 2025
I studied the clouds’ dark shapes—flocks of lost sheep straying across a desolate wasteland, blown to rags and tatters by the wind.
From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn
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.
