ragman
Itinerant cloth peddler
A ragman is a person who collects or deals in rags, old clothes, and other discarded materials.
Historically, ragmen traveled through neighborhoods with carts, buying or collecting worn-out textiles that could be recycled into paper or other products.
The occupation was common from the medieval period through the early twentieth century.
The ragman came by every Tuesday with his cart.
The term has largely fallen out of use as the trade disappeared with industrialization and changes in waste management.
Itinerant scrap dealer
- junk dealerSeller of secondhand goods
- waste pickerOne who collects recyclables
- salvagerOne who retrieves discards
- peddlerRoving small-goods merchant
hawker · street vendor · pushcart · secondhand · castoffs · discards · scraps · bones
Ragged scraps of cloth
- scrapsSmall remaining pieces
- quiltStuffed, stitched bed covering
- mosaicInlaid pictorial arrangement
- assemblageCollected group of things
hodgepodge · motley · tattered · worn · pieced together · remnants · fragments · odds and ends
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- indigenceExtreme poverty, total want
- squalorDirty, degraded living conditions
- hardshipSuffering from difficult circumstances
- homelessnessLacking permanent residence
street life · survival · castoffs · tatters · patches · mending · secondhand · alms
rag-and-bone man
Itinerant scrap dealer
- junk dealerSeller of secondhand goods
- waste pickerOne who collects recyclables
- salvagerOne who retrieves discards
peddler · hawker · street vendor · pushcart · secondhand · castoffs · discards · scraps · bones · metal
tatters
Ragged scraps of cloth
assemblage · hodgepodge · motley · tattered · worn · pieced together · remnants · fragments · odds and ends · mismatched
destitution
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- indigenceExtreme poverty, total want
- squalorDirty, degraded living conditions
- hardshipSuffering from difficult circumstances
homelessness · street life · survival · castoffs · tatters · patches · mending · secondhand · alms · charity
medieval
Of the Middle Ages
legend · tale · lore · oral tradition · narrative · tradition · historical · parchment · oath · allegiance
- Victorian Jobschimney sweep, milliner, housemaid, blacksmith, cobbler
- peddlerspeddler, hawker, vendor, street vendor, pushcart
ragmantailor
Clothing alteration professional
couturier · fashion designer · bespoke tailor · clothier · haberdasher
ragmanaristocrat
Person of noble birth
gentleman · industrialist · merchant prince · nobleman · magnate