Scragginess

Origin

scraggy + -ness

Full definition of scragginess

Noun

1. Roughness; irregularity; jaggedness.
• 2004, Norman R. Beaupré, Marginal Enemies, ISBN 9781595261427, p. 59:He wore the scragginess of an unshaven face like a lost man in pursuit of some safe harbor.
2. Leanness or thinness, especially as tending toward haggardness; scrawniness.
• 1900, Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, "A Wrong Altar" in Cupid's Garden.If Marian's girlish slimness showed faint, prophetic signs of degenerating into scragginess, George was still far too deeply in love to heed such evil and irreverent prophecies.
• 1922, Elinor Glyn, Man and Maid, ch. 21:There is not the least look of scragginess about her, just extreme slenderness, a small-boned creature of perhaps five foot four or five.

Related terms

• scraggy
• scraggily