different between uneven vs scraggly

English

Etymology

From Middle English uneven, from Old English unefen (“unequal, unlike, dissimilar, diverse, irregular”), equivalent to un- +? even. Cognate with Dutch oneven (“unequal, uneven, odd”), German uneben (“uneven, rough, irregular, bumpy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?iv?n/
• Rhymes: -i?v?n

Adjective

uneven (comparative more uneven, superlative most uneven)

1. Not even
2. Not level or smooth
3. Not uniform
4. Varying in quality
5. (mathematics, rare) Odd

   Antonym: even

Synonyms

• rough

Derived terms

• unevenly
• unevenness

Translations

See also

• irregular
• unequal

Verb

uneven (third-person singular simple present unevens, present participle unevening, simple past and past participle unevened)

1. (transitive) To make uneven.
   • 1993, Travel Holiday (volume 176, page 56)

     Initially it nestled among the dozens of Indian mounds that unevened the earth near the river until they were leveled to accommodate commerce.

   • 2006, Jack Temple Kirby, Mockingbird Song: Ecological Landscapes of the South (page 128)

     First, of course, the war reduced the white male, mostly young adult, population by more than a quarter-million, unevening the sex ratio and connubial and other opportunities for women for perhaps a generation.

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