noun
raff
raf
noun
1
Worthless or disorderly people considered as a group; the rabble.
"The old innkeeper complained that the tavern had filled up with raff and troublemakers."
"He refused to associate with what he called the raff of the port town."
2
A jumbled heap of odds and ends, especially cheap or worthless items.
"The attic was packed with raff nobody had bothered to sort through in decades."
How to Use Raff
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA dismissive word for a disorderly crowd of people, or for a messy heap of junk.
Common mistake
Rarely used alone today outside of the compound "riffraff" — using "raff" by itself can sound archaic or overly literary.
Common pairings
riffraff
raff and refuse
Word Forms
raffed past tense, raffs plural, raffs plural, Raffs plural, raffs singular
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Etymology
From Middle English raf, borrowed from Old French raffer ("to snatch"), of Germanic origin — the same root that gives us "riffraff."