rag, tag, and bobtail a group of people perceived as disreputable or undesirable.

☞ A bobtail is a horse or dog with a docked tail, while rag and tag both express the idea of 'tattered clothes': the phrase literally means 'people in ragged clothes together with their dogs and horses'. The forms tag, rag, and bobtail, ragtag and bobtail, and tagrag and bobtail are also found.