scraggy

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   lean, bony, or scrawny, often with a rough or underfed appearance

   The rescue workers found a scraggy dog sheltering beneath the abandoned porch.

2. 2
   adj

   rough, irregular, or thinly scattered in outline or growth

   Scraggy pines clung to the rocky slope above the village.

From scrag + -y. Scrag has long referred to a lean person or animal and to a rough stump or projection; its deeper origin is uncertain but may be Scandinavian. Scraggy developed both the bodily sense 'gaunt and bony' and the visual sense 'rough or irregular.'

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