as in jagged
having an uneven edge or outline
a scraggly little tree
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Recent Examples of scraggly
At his dining-room table, in a new home in a scraggly stretch of New Orleans’s Seventh Ward, Rob toggled between Facebook and WhatsApp on both his phone and laptop.
—
Daniel Brook, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
Van Der Beek looks a tad weathered for a man in his late 40s — not sure the scraggly man bun was a great choice — but otherwise projects a healthy, solid screen presence.
—Bob Strauss, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Mar. 2026
The sky was blue, and the sun warm, and the mountains speckled with granite and scraggly pines.
—Blair Braverman, Outside, 11 Mar. 2026
On a welcome muddy day in January — a warmish respite between polar vortexes and snowstorms — a small work crew hoisted 20-foot long steel pipes into a hole being bored hundreds of feet deep in the scraggly field across from Union Station in New Haven.
—Jan Ellen Spiegel, Hartford Courant, 23 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for scraggly
Daniel Brook, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
Van Der Beek looks a tad weathered for a man in his late 40s — not sure the scraggly man bun was a great choice — but otherwise projects a healthy, solid screen presence.
—Bob Strauss, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Mar. 2026
The sky was blue, and the sun warm, and the mountains speckled with granite and scraggly pines.
—Blair Braverman, Outside, 11 Mar. 2026
On a welcome muddy day in January — a warmish respite between polar vortexes and snowstorms — a small work crew hoisted 20-foot long steel pipes into a hole being bored hundreds of feet deep in the scraggly field across from Union Station in New Haven.
—Jan Ellen Spiegel, Hartford Courant, 23 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for scraggly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scraggly
Adjective
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At Palisades State Park, striking red-pink Sioux quartzite cliffs jut up to 50 feet above Split Rock Creek, their jagged faces almost glowing against a backdrop of bucolic farmland.—
Taryn Shorr-Mckee,
Midwest Living,
4 June 2026
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Rescuers knew that getting them out would not be easy in the face of jagged rocks, dirty water, near-zero visibility and the risk of panic.—
Janis Mackey Frayer,
NBC news,
4 June 2026
Adjective
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Kristen Stewart has sported every short hairstyle worth mentioning, but this impossibly ragged, exaggerated mullet feels like the correct choice for a grunge girl summer.—
Calin Van Paris,
InStyle,
27 May 2026
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Reflecting on these piercing paradoxes, Dusabejambo’s narrative (co-written with Delphine Agut) cannot but be shaped by them; there are no simple resolutions for a reality defined by ruptures and ragged edges.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
26 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scraggly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scraggly. Accessed 11 Jun. 2026.
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