English

Adjective

raggle-taggle ‎(comparative more raggle-taggle, superlative most raggle-taggle)

1. Disorderly, in a messy or chaotic state; ragged.
   • 1945, "Linked at Last", Time, 5 Feb 1945:

     The cocky little foot soldiers who had mopped up the north Burma jungle saw a knot of blue-grey, raggle-taggle men at the junction and wanted to fire on them.

   • 2000, George RR Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam 2011, p. 574:

     The raggle-taggle host of freedmen dwarfed her own, but they were more burden than benefit.

   • 2011, Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, 22 Mar 2011:

     The prime minister must know that the only way to achieve his stated goal is to topple Gaddafi, and his intelligence will have informed him that the raggle-taggle army in Benghazi cannot do it for him.