bedraggle

American  

[bih-drag-uhl] / bɪˈdræg əl /

verb (used with object)

bedraggled, bedraggling

1. to make limp and soiled, as with rain or dirt.

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bedraggle British  

/ bɪˈdræɡəl /

verb

1. (tr) to make (hair, clothing, etc) limp, untidy, or dirty, as with rain or mud

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Etymology

Origin of bedraggle

First recorded in 1720–30; be- + draggle

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Explanation

Bedraggle is a verb that means to make disheveled, wet, and dirty. Rain and mud bedraggle children who go tromping through the outdoors in their dressiest clothes right before family pictures. Bedraggle is a word that was probably very common in the early 1700s when people started using it. If a lady walked along the old, unpaved streets, it would bedraggle the bottom of her hoop skirt, and a gentleman might have set his coat down for her to walk on. Today we're more likely to use verbs like drench or soil instead, and, for the most part, to wear more sensible clothes.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bedraggle bedraggled

Instead of cultivating your graces you bedraggle them with labor!

From For Gold or Soul? The Story of a Great Department Store by Lurana W. Sheldon

Here in town, she probably preferred to tread the extent of the two drawing-rooms, and measure out the miles by spaces of forty feet, rather than bedraggle her skirts over the sloppy pavements.

From The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne

But Mathews had no Judge Lawlack to bedraggle justice for his sake.

From The Squatter and the Don by C. Loyal

But no blast can chill its wings, no mire bedraggle, or rude touch fray.

From Sister Dolorosa and Posthumous Fame by James Lane Allen

Around the same time Sanctuary Hill announced its inception, a large, bedraggled bird was spotted in Wisconsin.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026

But on what criteria, using what metrics, should the bedraggled managers—who have never had to do this before—make the trade-offs now?

From Slate ● Nov. 8, 2025

But bedraggled residents who spoke to the BBC near Lacey last week said they felt the workers' absence during the strike.

From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2025

Her over-romanticized vision of life across the pond, fueled by love stories like “Sense and Sensibility” set in pastoral England, starts out more bedraggled than charmed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2025

She’s pale and scrawny and bedraggled in a poetic sort of way, like something out of David Copperfield.

From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon

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Related Words

• besmirch
• contaminate
• debase
• degrade
• muddy
• pollute
• smear
• smudge
• sully
• taint
• tar
• tarnish

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