What's the difference between irregular and ragtag?
Irregular
Definition:
(a.) Not regular; not conforming to a law, method, or usage recognized as the general rule; not according to common form; not conformable to nature, to the rules of moral rectitude, or to established principles; not normal; unnatural; immethodical; unsymmetrical; erratic; no straight; not uniform; as, an irregular line; an irregular figure; an irregular verse; an irregular physician; an irregular proceeding; irregular motion; irregular conduct, etc. Cf. Regular.
(n.) One who is not regular; especially, a soldier not in regular service.
Example Sentences:
(1) Aggregation was more frequent in low-osmolal media: mainly rouleaux were formed in ioxaglate but irregular aggregates in non-ionic media.
(2) They were more irregularly curved and consisted of various substances.
(3) The results of the measurements permitted the identification of five main cytologic types, with regard to nuclear size, nuclear area dispersion and irregularity of nuclear profiles.
(4) A detailed stereochemical analysis of known protein structures has been made which shows that: (1) irregular regions of proteins consist of a limited number of standard structures formed by three, four of more residues; (2) an amino acid residue of a protein can adopt one of the six sterically allowed conformations designated here as alpha, alpha L, beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon.
(5) Endoscopy showed an irregular erosion of 4 by 2 cm, from which biopsies were taken.
(6) Aside from typical nuclear spheroids, irregularly shaped nuclei were frequently seen, associated with increased nuclear folds, transitional stages between nuclear folds and nuclear spheroids were also present.
(7) Although the level of ventilation is maintained constant during eating and drinking, the pattern of breathing becomes increasingly irregular.
(8) Numerous slender sarcotubules, originating from the A-band side terminal cisternae, extend obliquely or longitudinally and form oval or irregular shaped networks of various sizes in front of the A-band, then become continuous with the tiny mesh (fenestrated collar) in front of the H-band.
(9) What happened in the past was that if smugglers are sure that European boats are patrolling very close to the Libyan coast, then traffickers use this opportunity to advertise, and say to potential irregular migrants: ‘You will be sure to reach the European coast.
(10) In contrast, mean diameter of normal epicardial coronary artery tended to decrease and that of irregular epicardial coronary artery decreased significantly after intracoronary injection of acetylcholine.
(11) These findings are in agreement with the concept that irregular lesions represent ruptured atherosclerotic plaques and demonstrate that they usually originate from mildly occlusive smooth plaques.
(12) After 21 months, there appears to be no correlation between the amount of material adhering to the IUD and method complications (irregular and excessive bleeding) or method failure (pregnancy).
(13) The patient described in this report has the classic findings of Bardet-Biedl syndrome in conjunction with tibia vara and irregular physes of the lower extremities.
(14) After cessation her previously regular menstrual periods became very irregular and complete amenorrhea had lasted 4 months.
(15) Histochemical and electron-microscopic observations on a 30-month-old child with Hurler syndrome showed marked irregularities in chondrocyte orientation within the growth plate, along with disruption of the normal columnar architecture.
(16) The endocrine pattern and ovarian characteristics of 110 healthy adolescents with menstrual irregularities were investigated during the early follicular and premenstrual phases and were compared to those of 14 adolescents with regular menstrual cycles and 20 adults.
(17) Hypertrophy of the satellite cells with increase in the perineuronal intercellular spaces, often associated with irregular, scalloped nuclear and cell outlines, suggested that neuron shrinkage had occurred.
(18) Light microscopic examination of irregularly thickened white and black portions of abnormal scales demonstrated two distinctive populations of pigment-containing cells.
(19) In the second hypertrophied form [Type II], the endoplasmic reticulum is very prominent and occurs as a series of grossly dilated sacs of irregular shape.
(20) Disruption of the rhythmic activity of the inspiratory neurons and its replacement by a continuous and irregular discharge may lead to sustained contraction of inspiratory muscles and cessation of respiration.
Ragtag
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) To Popovich's credit, the ragtag group of roleplayers and benchwarmers almost pulled off a victory.
(2) In addition to the huge number of different groups fighting on the Ukrainian side, there is also a ragtag assortment of people fighting for the separatists – a mixture of Cossack militias and others from Russia who may have links with Russian intelligence, people representing local business and criminal interests, and ideologically motivated locals who genuinely believe in the cause.
(3) Based on Robert Edsel's book, The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes , the film focuses on the ragtag group of Americans, played by Clooney, Damon, Murray, Goodman and Bob Balaban, one Brit (Hugh Bonneville – Heslov is a big fan of Downton Abbey) and one Frenchman (Jean Dujardin, who is sweet in the film, even if he clearly only understood about one English word in every five of his lines) who were formed to try to save some of the great works of European art and architecture from being destroyed and pillaged during the second world war.
(4) Something is bubbling under the surface and the ragtag platoon of Ukip activists in Somerset say they feel it too.
(5) That’s where the ragtag bunch of 30 volunteers comes in.
(6) In the centre of town, pockets of armed men in ragtag military gear as well as larger groups of unarmed men congregated.
(7) Coke's critics are largely a ragtag bunch but the company has been unable to drown out the background noise, despite an annual marketing budget of $2bn.
(8) Its ragtag forces, including a high proportion of press-ganged and brutalised children, became notorious for abduction, gang rape and summary execution.
(9) This body is populated by a motley collection of amateurs; leftovers from a bygone age, when Ukip was a ragtag band of volunteers on the fringes of British politics.
(10) But for the first time in the quarter-century since global warming became a major public issue the advantage in this struggle has begun to tilt away from the Exxons and the BPs and towards the ragtag and spread-out fossil fuel resistance, which is led by indigenous people, young people, people breathing the impossible air in front-line communities.
(11) At the moment most of the interventions have been against softer targets – Saudi Arabia targeting guerrillas in Yemen; Egypt against Bedouin in Sinai; or strikes against ragtag armies in Libya.
(12) Even with better weapons and more training, they say, the rebels' ragtag forces are unlikely in the short term to be a match for Gaddafi's men.
(13) Clovis, a professor at Morningside College in Sioux City and occasional talk-radio host, has since been supplemented with a ragtag group of foreign policy advisers recently announced by the campaign, as well as by Stephen Miller, a longtime aide to Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who at campaign rallies has accused Cruz of wanting to start a war with Russia.
(14) Now try to imagine for a moment the excitement of the Cuban people in 1959 when the charismatic barbudo, Fidel Castro, and his band of ragtag rebels managed to pull off the impossible: getting rid of the dictator Fulgencio Batista and ushering in – or so everyone expected – a new era in Cuba; a Cuba free of the corruption, violence and cronyism that had pockmarked its history since before its Wars of Independence, and radically divided the haves and the have-nots.
(15) But my fondest memory is of The Brass Band, a ragtag bunch of American players who performed classical music brilliantly and with no reverence at all.
(16) Lea says the Northern Territory’s struggle for political representation stretches back beyond 1978 to the start of the 20th century and a “ragtag bunch of mostly blokes” who fought hard – but that’s not what Territory Day is about today, she says.
(17) It’s beyond a place called Jalbire but we’ve heard trucks are being looted, so the villagers come to a prearranged spot: a ragtag bunch of old men and small boys who are thrilled to receive a few basic necessities – a tarpaulin each, a packet of biscuits, some thin foam to sleep on.
(18) Each features a larger-than-life warlord and ragtag followers kitted out in mix'n'match uniforms.
(19) The ragtag army can fight a war of attrition with the government, but with no leadership and no command structure, they are unable to organise a concentrated attack on its bases.
(20) Here, a ragtag gang of American soldiers (including C Thomas Howell!)