riffraff

/ˌriˈfræf/

/ˈrɪfrɒf/

Use the word riffraff when you refer in a snide way to common or lower-class people as a group. A snob might refuse to stay at a party if he thinks it's full of riffraff.

You're only going to use riffraff in a joking way, unless you truly consider yourself part of a small, elite, superior segment of humanity. An obnoxious, arrogant character in a movie might tell her chauffeur, "Jeeves, pull around the corner. I don't want to walk through that crowd of riffraff." Before the fifteenth century, the term was rif and raf, which meant both "everybody," and "sweepings."

Definitions of riffraff

1. noun

   disparaging terms for the common people
   synonyms: rabble, ragtag, ragtag and bobtail

   types:

   scum, trash

   worthless people

   type of:

   common people, folk, folks

   people in general (often used in the plural)