raggedy
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of raggedy
Explanation
If something's raggedy, it's been used so much that it's starting to fall apart or become shabby. Face it, it's time to throw away that raggedy old sweater — it's full of holes! Raggedy is used for beat up, tattered clothing, but it can also describe anything that's scruffy or unkempt. There's your older brother's raggedy beard, that raggedy patch of lawn that refuses to grow grass, or the raggedy teddy bear you've had since you were a baby and can't bear to part with. Raggedy started as 19th-century Southern slang, and in 1913 it was used to name the popular Raggedy Ann doll.
Vocabulary lists containing raggedy
Dog Squad
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After Tupac and D Foster
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Vocabulary from Readings 2, Unit 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But in a deliberately raggedy film, we find a raggedy man.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 24, 2026
It’s important to note that long before the tick-tock and chiming of clocks, our ancestors — you know, that raggedy bunch dressed in animal fur — had to adapt to seasonal changes in daylight.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 8, 2025
I had a golf tee time booked for Thursday afternoon at Wilson Golf Course, a beloved if sometimes raggedy course that the city runs in Griffith Park, near me.
From Slate • Jan. 9, 2025
She was referring to a raggedy but reliable 2007 Kia Sedona missing its middle seat.
From New York Times • Feb. 12, 2024
While I was digging through the doll bin for a Black Barbie, he had his eyes on this raggedy chest with half the leather cover missing.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
