different between scraggly vs scrawny

English

Etymology

As if from a verb *scraggle (in turn from scrag).

Adjective

scraggly (comparative scragglier, superlative scraggliest)

1. Rough, scruffy, or unkempt.
   • 1913, Jack London, John Barleycorn, ch. 31:

     The sunburn of my face, what little of it could be seen through a scraggly growth of beard, had faded to a sickly yellow.

   • 1980 Nov. 24, John Skow, "In Arizona: A Million Dollar Sale of Cowboy Art," Time:

     What he painted was scenes of the Old West, cowboys and Indians, cattle and horses. Pictures scraggly with sagebrush.

2. Jagged or uneven; scraggy.
   • 1916, Annie Fellows Johnston, Georgina of the Rainbows, ch. 24:

     She would be so happy . . . that she wouldn't notice the spelling or the scraggly writing.

   • 2001 Sep. 7, Christopher John Farley, "At the MTV Awards: Redheads and Circuses," Time:

     "I have no idea," the young woman said, checking over the scraggly illegible signature the mystery woman had left her in her autograph book.

Derived terms

• scraggliness

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• scranny (dialectal)

Etymology

A variant of dialectal scranny (“thin; lean; scraggy; poor; scanty; of inferior quality”), perhaps from Old Norse skran (“rubbish; junk”) +? -y. Compare English scrannel (“lean; meager; poor; worthless”).

Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse skrælna (“to be shrivelled”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?skr??ni/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?skr?ni/
• Rhymes: -??ni

Adjective

scrawny (comparative scrawnier, superlative scrawniest)

1. Thin, malnourished and weak.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:scrawny

Related terms

• scran

Translations

References