rags to riches
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
From poverty to wealth
Literally: rising from tattered clothes to rich possessions
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
An appropriate valedictory comment on W. C. T. might be that he underwent a dramatic rags - to - riches transformation, conveniently abandoning the Dissenting zeal of his ancestors in the process.
LOCHSONG can continue her fairytale rags - to - riches story by landing the £100,000-added Hazlewood Foods Sprint Cup at Haydock Park tomorrow.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Equivalents & related
Near equivalent
lên voi xuống chó
to have ups and downs in one's life; to go from rags to riches and/or riches to rags; to move up and down the socioeconomic ladder
Tiếng Việt
Near equivalent
ups and downs
Experiences of good and bad fortune or success
English · via lên voi xuống chó
Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.
Common questions
What does “rags to riches” mean?
From poverty to wealth Literally: rising from tattered clothes to rich possessions
Is “rags to riches” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
What is the closest equivalent?
“lên voi xuống chó” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.