Definition of "ragamuffin"
ragamuffin
noun
plural ragamuffins
A dirty, shabbily-clothed child; an urchin.
Quotations
I haue led my rag of Muffins where they are pepper'd: there's not three of my 150 left aliue; and they for the Townes end, to beg during life.
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iii], page 71
“But may I inquire how you intend to support the establishment? If all the pupils are little ragamuffins, I’m afraid your crop won’t be profitable in a worldly sense, Mr. Bhaer.”
1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 47, in Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers