From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfrom rags to richesfrom rags to richesRICHbecoming very rich after starting your life very poor He likes to tell people of his rise from rags to riches. → rags-to-riches → rag
Examples from the Corpus
from rags to riches• I used the analogy of a family that goes from rags to riches and back to rags in three or four generations.• These he is at pains to hide in order to promote the fiction of his rise from rags to riches. 