Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

scraggy

American  
[skrag-ee] / ˈskræg i /

adjective

scraggier, scraggiest
  1. lean or thin; scrawny.

  2. meager.

  3. irregular; craggy; jagged.


scraggy British  
/ ˈskræɡɪ /

adjective

  1. lean or scrawny

  2. rough; unkempt

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of scraggy

First recorded in 1565–75; scrag + -y 1


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.

See Examples For:

Alberto Giacometti’s sculptures of tall, elegantly scraggy humans loom large in people’s minds.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 19, 2022

Unaccountably angry and smug, the scraggy Smithers is Brutus’s cynical, conniving cohort.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 3, 2017

Trim the chicken thighs of scraggy bits of skin.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2016

Back on the beach, Maria Dolores is cutting a piece of ham to offer to the couple of scraggy dogs, which are skulking under the picnic table.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2013

“Don’t worry,” he said to you, and he sat down cross-legged, pulling his T-shirt over his scraggy knees.

From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman

After leaving the timber-line, the riders found the scrub bushes grew scraggier and shorter, and finally the top of the peak was left as bare and craggy as any volcanic formation.

From Girl Scouts in the Rockies by Lillian Elizabeth Roy

The old sailor, ignorant of Arabic feminine names, thought it a “misnomer”, for of all his she-persecutors she was the leanest and scraggiest.

From The Boy Slaves by Mayne Reid

On our way we paused to admire the church bell—an ancient dinner-bell, which hung by a piece of string from the longest and scraggiest arm of a very old and leafless tree.

From The Last Voyage to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' by R. T. (Robert Taylor) Pritchett

She wore a blaze of jewels and a low gown out of which rose the scraggiest neck and shoulders I have ever looked on.

From Eleven Possible Cases by Franklin Fyles

Redwood rode a strong horse of the half-hunter breed, while the “wolf-killer” was mounted upon one of the scraggiest looking quadrupeds it would be possible to imagine—an old mare “mustang.”

From The Hunters' Feast Conversations Around the Camp Fire by Mayne Reid

“It was the rummiest vehicle you ever saw,” he heard Jones say; “a cart, I assure you—nothing more or less, and drawn by the very scraggiest scarecrow of a blind horse.”

From St. Winifred's, or The World of School by H. C. (Harold C.) Earnshaw

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember new words for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com