ragmen
Dealers in scraps
Ragmen is the plural of ragman—a person who collected rags, bones, and other discarded materials for resale or recycling.
Before modern waste management, ragmen traveled neighborhoods with carts, buying or gathering scraps: The ragmen came through every Thursday morning.
The occupation has largely disappeared, though the term survives in historical contexts and folk songs.
Torn cloth pieces
- tattersRagged scraps of cloth
- scrapsSmall remaining pieces
- burlapCoarse woven fiber
- sackingDismissal from employment
castoffs · remnants · old clothes · fabric · linens · cotton waste · paper stock · bones
Those who systematically acquire
- peddlersMobile small-scale merchants
- scavengersCreatures consuming dead matter
- salvagersThose recovering discarded valuables
- recyclersThose who reprocess waste
hawkers · street vendors · carters · scrap dealers · junkmen · totters
Of a prim era
- DickensianGrimly poor, socially unjust
- tenementsOvercrowded urban dwellings
- slumsImpoverished, crowded districts
- povertySevere lack of resources
horse-drawn carts · bells · Industrial Revolution · workhouse · chimney sweeps · lamplighters · paper mills · cholera
rags
Torn cloth pieces
sacking · castoffs · remnants · old clothes · fabric · linens · cotton waste · paper stock · bones · bottles
collectors
Those who systematically acquire
- peddlersMobile small-scale merchants
- scavengersCreatures consuming dead matter
- salvagersThose recovering discarded valuables
recyclers · hawkers · street vendors · carters · scrap dealers · junkmen · totters
Victorian
Of a prim era
- DickensianGrimly poor, socially unjust
- tenementsOvercrowded urban dwellings
- slumsImpoverished, crowded districts
poverty · horse-drawn carts · bells · Industrial Revolution · workhouse · chimney sweeps · lamplighters · paper mills · cholera · immigrant labor
ragmenmagnates
Wealthy, powerful industrialists
tycoons · aristocrats · industrialists · plutocrats · landed gentry
ragmenjewelers
Gem and precious metal merchants
couturiers · diamond traders · goldsmiths · silversmiths · antique dealers
ragmenmanufacturers
Entities producing goods massively
producers · weavers · clothiers · tailors · dressmakers