A ragamuffin is a child wearing torn, dirty, or badly worn-out clothes. The word paints a picture of someone whose shirt has holes, whose pants are too short and stained, and whose shoes (if they have any) are falling apart.

Historically, ragamuffin described poor children living on city streets in the 1800s and early 1900s, often orphans or runaways who had no one to care for them. These children wore whatever ragged clothes they could find. You might encounter ragamuffins in classic books like Oliver Twist, where many characters live in desperate poverty.

Today the word is rarely used seriously, since it can sound insulting or old-fashioned. Parents might affectionately call their kids ragamuffins after they come home muddy from playing outside, with grass stains on their knees and dirt smudged across their faces. In this playful usage, it just means “messy” or “disheveled,” not actually poor.

When you see ragamuffin in older literature, it tells you something important about that character's situation: they're struggling, neglected, or living in hardship.