How to Use scruffy in a Sentence

scruffy

adjective

• The neighborhood is full of dilapidated houses with scruffy backyards.
• Gezi Park still stands, a scruffy patch of grass and trees.
  — The Economist, 20 Feb. 2020
• The scruffy children in the streets of the ghetto — one of them could have been me.
  — Bryan Marquard, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Sep. 2023
• Shawn is tall and lean, with long dreadlocks and a scruffy beard.
  — Richard Mertens, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Mar. 2022
• Its sound, a heaving wave with scruffy edges, is easy to get lost in.
  — Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2021
• Along the way, the train passed rows of small grocery stores, churches and scruffy palm trees.
  — Rachel Swan, SFChronicle.com, 10 Dec. 2019
• My husband is sick of seeing the scruffy look, as well.
  — Ellen Warren, chicagotribune.com, 2 July 2018
• One child played with his beard, and the scruffy Duke happily obliged.
  — Erica Gonzales, Harper's BAZAAR, 11 July 2018
• Mario Ybarra, 65, does not fit the profile of the scruffy day worker.
  — John MacCormack, ExpressNews.com, 18 Mar. 2020
• The older people, who should have known better, were worse, and the scruffy men were worst of all.
  — Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Nov. 2021
• My heart smiled at the sight of the scruffy little bird splashing about in the garden fountain.
  — Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Nov. 2022
• Even a scruffy journalist like me could afford to live the dream.
  — Bernhard Warner, Fortune, 9 June 2020
• Word on the street says the Great Frogs team has a refined palate—the scruffy pups in particular.
  — Kaitlyn Yarborough, Southern Living, 25 July 2023
• In one photo, two teen-age girls sit on the curb in a motel parking lot, next to a scruffy patch of grass.
  — Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 2 Apr. 2020
• It’s of a horse-like figure with big, round eyes, a scruffy mane and a tail coming out of its belly.
  — USA Today, 9 June 2022
• Clientele were desert rats, young and old, some long-haired and scruffy, some clean-shaven with cowboy hats.
  — Rosecrans Baldwin, Travel + Leisure, 30 Mar. 2023
• Their locks are scruffy, scraggly; tousled for the boys, and wispy for those whose boyhoods were long ago.
  — Michael Paulson Roderick Aichinger, New York Times, 24 Aug. 2022
• If the plants start to look scruffy, shear off the top one-third of leafy growth and spent flower stems to rejuvenate.
  — Arricca Sansone, Country Living, 1 Aug. 2018
• Richards, who is thirty-six, with a scruffy beard, was wearing a navy barn jacket and grimy jeans.
  — Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2021
• Giving the speech that day was a 26-year-old Viktor Orban, wearing a scruffy suit and a head of thick dark curls.
  — Amanda Coakley/budapest, Time, 22 Mar. 2022
• Lacey is described as a white male six feet tall, 240 pounds, with blue eyes, brown/gray hair and short, scruffy facial hair.
  — al, 15 Nov. 2020
• Bersten, an affable 25-year-old with curly dark hair and a scruffy beard, joined DWTS in season 20.
  — Danielle McNally, Marie Claire, 4 Oct. 2019
• Shieh had scruffy black hair and wore a Phillips Academy quarter-zip.
  — Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2022
• His trousers were on the scruffy side and his boots were dilapidated.
  — Town & Country, 14 Nov. 2022
• The outward-facing men of Trumpworld tended to be big, scruffy and full of bluster.
  — Jacob Bernstein, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2020
• But look closer and take her in: a harmless opossum, in all her scruffy glory.
  — Elaine Godfrey, The Atlantic, 20 July 2022
• Here’s an excerpt: The scruffy bear of a man pulls his sunglasses tight so his football team can’t see his tears.
  — Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2019
• All the tots are all well scrubbed and smiling, except for one scruffy little guy who’s giving the finger to the camera.
  — Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2020
• Conan joins a long, scruffy line of war dogs that have served alongside U.S. troops for more than a century.
  — Alex Horton, chicagotribune.com, 26 Nov. 2019
• Kendall and Deitchman are in their forties, with scruffy beards and friendly demeanors.
  — Lizzie Widdicombe, The New Yorker, 21 June 2019

Last Updated: 28 May 2024