Synonyms of scrawny

scrawny

adjective

as in skinny

very thin in a way that is not attractive or healthy

He changed from a scrawny kid to a brawny teen in just over a year.

The only plants in their yard were a couple of scrawny bushes.

Related Words

• skinny
• thin
• slender
• wiry
• lean
• bony
• rawboned
• gaunt
• scraggy
• sinewy
• slim
• angular
• haggard
• trim
• lithe
• svelte
• lanky
• willowy
• spindly
• weedy
• fatless
• skeletal
• reedy
• stringy
• twiggy
• spare
• emaciated
• clean-limbed
• lank
• rangy
• wizened
• anorexic
• puny
• waspish
• sylphlike
• pinched
• cadaverous
• meager
• anorectic
• wasted
• spindling
• slight

Dissimilar Words

• stocky
• bulky
• fleshy
• beefy
• thick
• stout
• heavy
• chunky
• heavyset
• burly
• pudgy
• thickset
• husky
• brawny
• weighty
• stubby
• dumpy
• squat
• paunchy
• flabby
• potbellied
• soft
• buxom
• chubby
• plump
• fat
• overweight
• full
• obese
• round
• roly-poly
• rotund
• corpulent
• gross
• hippy
• portly
• tubby
• zaftig

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective scrawny contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of scrawny are gaunt, lanky, lank, lean, rawboned, skinny, and spare. While all these words mean "thin because of an absence of excess flesh," scrawny and skinny imply an extreme leanness that suggests deficient strength and vitality.

a scrawny chicken

skinny street urchins

When could gaunt be used to replace scrawny?

The words gaunt and scrawny can be used in similar contexts, but gaunt implies marked thinness or emaciation as from overwork or suffering.

a prisoner's gaunt face

When is lank a more appropriate choice than scrawny?

Although the words lank and scrawny have much in common, lank implies tallness as well as leanness.

the lank legs of the heron

In what contexts can lanky take the place of scrawny?

The synonyms lanky and scrawny are sometimes interchangeable, but lanky suggests awkwardness and loose-jointedness as well as thinness.

a lanky youth, all arms and legs

When is it sensible to use lean instead of scrawny?

While the synonyms lean and scrawny are close in meaning, lean stresses lack of fat and of curving contours.

a lean racehorse

When might rawboned be a better fit than scrawny?

While in some cases nearly identical to scrawny, rawboned suggests a large ungainly build without implying undernourishment.

a rawboned farmer

When can spare be used instead of scrawny?

In some situations, the words spare and scrawny are roughly equivalent. However, spare suggests leanness from abstemious living or constant exercise.

the gymnast's spare figure

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of scrawny

The woman’s husband, a scrawny man in a shabby work uniform, smelling of sewage, drooped behind the gurney. —Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025

As if to preëmpt her detractors, Burnett often resorted to brutal self-deprecation, describing herself in interviews as scrawny or bucktoothed. —Rachel Syme, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025

Directed by Troma co-founders Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, the original Toxic Avenger centers around Melvin (Mark Torgl), a scrawny and awkward teenager who works as custodian at a local gym and is quite literally bullied straight into a frothing barrel of toxic waste. —Josh Weiss, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025

On an unremarkable clay tennis court in the Spanish city of Alicante, watched on by only a handful of spectators, two teenagers swipe the ball to one another with surprising vigor, belying their scrawny, adolescent frames. —George Ramsay, CNN Money, 25 Aug. 2025