as in dilapidated
showing signs of advanced wear and tear and neglect
dressed in scruffy old clothes to clean out the garage
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Recent Examples of scruffy
In a mugshot released earlier this week by the Orange County Department of Corrections, Ramagem appears with red, puffy eyes, a scruffy beard and wearing a green sweatshirt.
—
Maria Clara Matos, Miami Herald, 20 Apr. 2026
But a lot of folks fondly remember original Freight & Salvage, a more intimate and scruffy joint that was a beloved Berkeley jam spot.
—Randy McMullen, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2026
My parents rented a scruffy one-bedroom apartment overlooking a park in the Fillmore District.
—Zayd Ayers Dohrn, New Yorker, 28 Mar. 2026
The new auteurs of the 1990s reflected a broader shift in tone across the culture toward something scruffier and more disillusioned—the cinematic equivalent of Nirvana on the radio and Marc Jacobs’s Perry Ellis grunge collection on the runway.
—Maxwell Adler, Vanity Fair, 19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for scruffy
Maria Clara Matos, Miami Herald, 20 Apr. 2026
But a lot of folks fondly remember original Freight & Salvage, a more intimate and scruffy joint that was a beloved Berkeley jam spot.
—Randy McMullen, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2026
My parents rented a scruffy one-bedroom apartment overlooking a park in the Fillmore District.
—Zayd Ayers Dohrn, New Yorker, 28 Mar. 2026
The new auteurs of the 1990s reflected a broader shift in tone across the culture toward something scruffier and more disillusioned—the cinematic equivalent of Nirvana on the radio and Marc Jacobs’s Perry Ellis grunge collection on the runway.
—Maxwell Adler, Vanity Fair, 19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for scruffy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scruffy
Adjective
-
Zaragoza stationed his men on the high ground, hidden behind cacti, behind walls of dilapidated forts, in ditches.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
4 May 2026
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Longtime Oak Lawn Village Board member Timothy Desmond has resigned from his post to enter into a contract with the village through his home building company to restore dilapidated properties, with the goal of putting them back on the tax rolls.—
Olivia Stevens,
Chicago Tribune,
28 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Cinematographer Guillermo Garza shoots neglected settings like fine art, embracing the grime.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
3 Apr. 2026
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An El Segundo father says that he was arrested in early March for taking matters into his own hands by installing stop signs and repainting a neglected and dangerous intersection.—
Jasmine Viel,
CBS News,
25 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scruffy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scruffy. Accessed 12 May. 2026.
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