From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishragamuffinrag‧a‧muf‧fin /ˈræɡəˌmʌfɪn/ noun [countable] literarySSCDC a dirty young child wearing torn clothes
Examples from the Corpus
ragamuffin• A ragamuffin was walking up and down the rows of benches begging from anyone who was awake.• A few well-dressed Yanks are to be sprinkled among 600 soldiers and ragamuffins.• Fancy, gentlemen in velvet scrapping like ragamuffins!• Last night his hourly wage, about £8 in loose change was nicked from under his nose by scavenging ragamuffins.• And the ragamuffin kids: unwashed kids, hungry kids, artful kids, verminous kids, nice kids and unholy terrors.• It's only the ragamuffins chasing Caesar down the Fosse Way.Origin ragamuffin (1300-1400) Ragamoffyn, evil spirit in the 14th-century poem Piers Plowman by William Langland 