motley crew

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A group of people of mixed background, especially one with a common goal.

Pronunciation

/ˌmɒtli ˈkɹuː/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-motley crew.wav /ˌmɑtli ˈkɹu/

Word forms

motley crew motley crews

Etymology

From motley + crew. Originally used to refer to the crews of 17th- and 18th-century ships, which contained men of many different nationalities.

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.