What's the difference between rabble and riffraff?

Rabble


Definition:

  • (n.) An iron bar, with the end bent, used in stirring or skimming molten iron in the process of puddling.
  • (v. t.) To stir or skim with a rabble, as molten iron.
  • (v. i.) To speak in a confused manner.
  • (v. i.) A tumultuous crowd of vulgar, noisy people; a mob; a confused, disorderly throng.
  • (v. i.) A confused, incoherent discourse; a medley of voices; a chatter.
  • (a.) Of or pertaining to a rabble; like, or suited to, a rabble; disorderly; vulgar.
  • (v. t.) To insult, or assault, by a mob; to mob; as, to rabble a curate.
  • (v. t.) To utter glibly and incoherently; to mouth without intelligence.
  • (v. t.) To rumple; to crumple.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) So, at the end of her life, Williams, with other Hillsborough families, was recognised not as part of some Liverpool rabble but as a shining example: an everyday person embodying the extraordinary power and depth of human love.
  • (2) On the other, well, just look at the bigoted rabble.
  • (3) No one else need bother to paint them as a ramshackle and rancorous rabble marooned in the past and without a plausible account of the future.
  • (4) Corbyn's Momentum group moves to block influence of hard-left parties Read more Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader, calls the group “a bit of a rabble”.
  • (5) At least if he had to join the Army, he decided, he would apply for the Royal Army Medical Corps, but his diminutive stature (he was just over five feet tall) disqualified him from anything but the Bantam units, "a horrible rabble - Falstaff's scarecrows were nothing to these", he wrote.
  • (6) As an electoral reform campaigner, I'd been invited to speak at a big fringe meeting, and I'd prepared a tub-thumping rabble-rousing speech, guaranteed to instil in the faintest of hearts the passion I felt about the injustices of the current electoral system.
  • (7) As much as it pains me to point out the blindingly obvious, Sunderland are some rabble.
  • (8) They were a rabble and, at this level, a team cannot expect to get away with these kind of collective failures.
  • (9) Hungarians fought for freedom in 1956, not Orban’s rabble-rousers | George Szirtes Read more Access to transit zones set up at the border with Serbia has already been severely restricted, human rights groups claim.
  • (10) That is more than West Ham dare hope for, since for a Sam Allardyce side the visitors were pallid here, almost as much of a pushover as the Blackburn rabble that went down 7-1 three years ago at Old Trafford in a result that altered the course of events at Ewood and ultimately Upton Park.
  • (11) | Oliver Burkeman Read more The real-estate mogul turned entertainer turned political rabble-rouser-in-chief tweeted a photo of himself on Tuesday – #MakeAmericaGreatAgain – which, upon closer inspection, revealed something shocking to his 3.2 million followers.
  • (12) According to the police report, "a man claiming to be the chief whip" – pause for mocking laughter from the rabble (sorry, from Labour MPs) – "called the police 'plebs', told them they should know their place, and used other abusive language.
  • (13) Her criticism of Momentum is the most forthright of any MP for some time, after Tom Blenkinsop called for the group to be banned and Tom Watson dismissed it as a “bit of a rabble” .
  • (14) This time, Republican primary evangelicals and general election evangelicals want a candidate who not just talks a good game, but who has actual accomplishments in the areas that they care most about.” Courting ‘the lifeline of the Republican Party’ In his two-plus years in the Senate, Cruz has made a name for himself as a rabble-rouser who often butts heads with party leadership.
  • (15) And there will still be a mixture of homegrown material and features glommed from Wired's American edition, alongside an eclectic slate of contributors that includes the distinguished (Oxford neuroscientist Susan Greenfield) and the rabble-rousing (Warren Ellis, the expletive-addicted comic book writer).
  • (16) While the iPhone remains the acknowledged market leader in the mobile world – more profitable and trend-setting than anything else in the mobile phone market for years – a rabble of challengers is closing in fast.
  • (17) They’re a rabble with various causes, mostly anti-establishment and anti-gentrification.
  • (18) If James hadn’t put her name forward at the last minute, we would have had nothing but a rabble of no-name, no-talent nobodies to choose from.
  • (19) That said, it contains all the elements required to stir the loins: a glorious and triumphant opening string and brass salvo, followed by a regal and stately middle section (to the manor born), building to a rabble rousing climax.
  • (20) Even the reliably rabble-rousing Bob Crow, of the RMT, is emphasising Fathers4Justice-style publicity stunts over a general strike.

Riffraff


Definition:

  • (n.) Sweepings; refuse; the lowest order of society.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The financial regulator is not there to act like a badass new sheriff in town who is going to cleanse it of the riffraff and crack down on loose morals.
  • (2) "We'll never accept this riffraff," said the leader of the Party of France , Thomas Joly.
  • (3) The kind of riffraff that behave like militias on behalf of local oligarchs.
  • (4) These girls were treated like riffraff who were undeserving of the law and not deemed worthy of care – and that was the overwhelming thing we learnt from this story,” said Hogg, adding: “The terrible thing was when the girls came in to tell the police what was happening, the police ignored them because they didn’t believe when they stood up in the witness box they would be believed.” I exposed the Rochdale scandal – Three Girls should be a catalyst for progress | Sara Rowbotham Read more The was a view echoed by Taylor.

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