Riffraff refers to people considered disreputable or worthless by those who look down on them. If someone calls a group “riffraff,” they're expressing contempt, suggesting these people lack manners, morals, or social standing.

The word often reveals more about the speaker than the people being described. When a wealthy character in a novel dismisses townspeople as riffraff, we learn about that character's snobbery and arrogance. When a store owner chases away teenagers, calling them riffraff, he's making unfair assumptions based on appearance rather than actual behavior.

Today it still carries that harsh judgment, though most people recognize how unfair such blanket dismissals are.

You might encounter riffraff in stories where class differences matter, like when a pompous villain sneers at ordinary people or when an exclusive club tries to keep out the “riffraff.” The word itself has become somewhat old-fashioned, but the ugly habit of dismissing entire groups of people as inferior, sadly, has not.