The neighborhood is full of dilapidated houses with scruffy backyards.
dressed in scruffy old clothes to clean out the garage
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The scruffy stage manager, Bunny, turns out to be posher than the monocled director, Meredith.—Christopher Tayler, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026 All but unrecognizable behind his scruffy beard, Poulter blends right in with these hard-knock folks, whose homemade tattoos and missing teeth are the real deal.—Peter Debruge, Variety, 25 Jan. 2026 Cooper Hoffman giving us a scruffy Zoomer update of ’80s Tom Hanks.—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 24 Jan. 2026 The first Berenjak opened in London’s Soho district in 2018, in a space handsomely scruffy in the spirit of Samyani’s memories.—Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2026 See All Example Sentences for scruffy
Word History
Etymology
scruff, metathetic variant of scurf (also with senses "something worthless or contemptible, contemptible person") + -y entry 1