straggly
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of straggly
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:
Two years ago, he turned several straggly islands off Miami into blooming lily pads by surrounding them with hot-pink fabric.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
His hair was a mess of seaweed, the straggly green strands bobbing up and down on the surface of the water.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2024
His beard - brown and trim when I first encountered him in the besieged Donbas town of Lysychansk in 2022 - is now straggly and grey.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2024
His floor-length fur is straggly and windblown, giving him a disheveled look incongruent with this toy breed’s stereotypical silky-smooth fur and ribbons in their hair.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2023
Joseph joined the chase and tried to intercept the straggly dog as he leapt up onto the sideboard, scattering piles of old candles and oyster shells.
From "The Marvels" by Brian Selznick
![]()
It wasn’t too long before we were all stretched out, a long and straggling line that got longer and stragglier the farther we went.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
![]()
In the last and straggliest of those streets which runs along the sea like a sea-wall there is a very honest but rather sharp-tempered member of my flock, a widow called MacNab.
From The Wisdom of Father Brown by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
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.