The neighborhood is full of dilapidated houses with scruffy backyards.
dressed in scruffy old clothes to clean out the garage
Recent Examples on the WebIt was filmed in Seattle in 1991, as the city’s scruffy rock bands drifted, improbably, toward global superfame.—Sam Anderson, New York Times, 16 Apr. 2024 This scruffy but finely nuanced drama follows an unusual group of characters: four Sasquatches—mythical beings better known singly, as Bigfoot—making their way through the forests of the Pacific Northwest in the course of a year.—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2024 Marchant, a scruffy professor at BU, was a rock star of rock study.—David Kushner, WIRED, 4 Apr. 2024 Flagstaff had a scruffy edge in those days, but today the town has a more youthful, optimistic feel, and a new generation of astronauts is training there.—Leslie Camhi, Travel + Leisure, 30 Mar. 2024 Wearing his red union baseball cap and tending the blaze inside an oil drum, Mr. Bohne, 56, looks like a scruffy Santa Claus.—Erika Solomon, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024 Stern is seventy-one, with a scruffy white beard and a taste for casual attire.—Eyal Press, The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2024 The motley crew of mutts include the scruffy border terrier Reggie (Ferrell), Boston terrier Bug (Foxx), Australian shepherd Maggie (Fisher), and Great Dane Hunter (Park).—Devan Coggan, EW.com, 15 Aug. 2023 Its scruffy cross-hatching, dazzling lighting and punkish energy indicate an official shift from realism to expressionism.—Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scruffy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
scruff, metathetic variant of scurf (also with senses "something worthless or contemptible, contemptible person") + -y entry 1
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