The Collaborative International Dictionary
motley collection \mot"ley col*lec"tion\, n. A collection of objects of various kinds; a hodgepodge; a medley; a confused mixture; an omnium gatherum.
Usage examples of "motley collection".
Seated with his back to the wall of the low-ceilinged, crowded tavern, Gruntle looked out with narrowed eyes on a motley collection of murderers, extortionists and thugs whose claim to power was measured in fear.
Like most samurai, their clothes were a motley collection of kimonos and rags, but their weapons always the best that each could afford.
He was too tired to harbor resentment against the government that had tagged him and probed him, then ordered him out here into the labor camp, away from his comforts, to do such unskilled work as was required of him, along with a motley collection of people of vague abilities and numerous reasons that made them unsuitable for military service.
There followed a motley collection of fragments-gold and platinum coins, a broken telephoto lens, a watch, a cold-light lamp, a microphone, the cutter from an electric razor, some midget radio tubes, the flotsam that had been left behind when the great tide of civilization had ebbed forever.
Then they pounded it with timbers, mixing it with the ditch-water, and drew off the liquor that floated on top and put it into a motley collection of pots and pans.
Somehow, Capustan's motley collection of defenders had managed to drive them back.
The most motley collection I ever saw, all sorts of rig, all sorts of hats and caps, many fine-looking young fellows, some of them shame-faced, some sickly, most of them dirty, shirts very dirty and long worn, &.
The rioters rushed forward in a ragged battle line, brandishing a motley collection of makeshift or stolen weapons.
Ferris' motley collection, and its pristine perfection was due to her own labors.
A huge carnivorous ape followed, along with a tiger, a motley collection of wolves, and a man-sized lizard dredged up from some subterranean lair.
Born of a dubious alliance between a handful of mages, Karpolan among them, and the city's benefactors - a motley collection of retired pirates and wreckers - the Guild came to specialize in expeditions so risk-laden as to make the average merchant pale.
Born of a dubious alliance between a handful of mages, Karpolan among them, and the city's benefactorsa motley collection of retired pirates and wreckersthe Guild came to specialize in expeditions so risk-laden as to make the average merchant pale.
Alodar could make out a motley collection of tents rising in its midst, and from the pinnacles of each flew a blue and silver banner.
Our labors were rewarded (I use the word ironically) by a motley collection of rubbish the tomb robbers had scorned cheap pottery jars, fragments of wooden boxes, and a few beads.
There's been plenty of bandit activity from Fool's Forest and Yellow Mark, for which I acknowledge some proprietary pride, since it was me who united that motley collection of highwaymen and throat-slitters in the first place.