Ragpicking

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The act or practice of collecting discarded items or waste materials, especially cloth or rags, from streets or garbage for reuse or resale
2. Engaging in the gathering of leftover or unwanted goods, particularly fabric scraps, often from refuse piles for recycling or profit
3. The process of scavenging through refuse to find and retrieve pieces of cloth or other valuables for further use or sale

Etymology: "Ragpicking" is built from two plain English words: "rag," a scrap of worn-out cloth, and "picking," the act of gathering things up one by one. The sense is literal. Someone who ragpicks sorts through discards for usable fragments, and in its older uses the activity was a livelihood for people who lived on what others threw away. The verb "ragpick" came later and was formed by stripping the "-ing" off the noun-based phrase, a process called back-formation. So the activity was named first, and the verb was derived from it, which is why the verb looks like a shortened version of a longer word rather than the other way round.

Synonyms: scavenging, collecting waste, junk collecting