straggly

[ strag-lee ]

adjective

, strag·gli·er, strag·gli·est.

1. straggling; rambling.

Word History and Origins

Origin of straggly¹

First recorded in 1865–70; straggle + -y ¹

Example Sentences

A white man with grey, straggly hair stroked his bearded chin.

From BBC

His beard - brown and trim when I first encountered him in the besieged Donbas town of Lysychansk in 2022 - is now straggly and grey.

From BBC

Flip this folded dough over so the seam is on the bottom, smooshing in any straggly bits, and sprinkling flour over any naked chunks of butter or otherwise sticky spots.

From Washington Post

For variety she found straggly mhuvuyu, blackjack weeds, and cooked their leaves as a kind of spinach.

From Literature

A soft, golden light filtered through twisted trees draped with a straggly yellow-green lichen called “old man’s beard,” giving the glens a magical air.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• contaminated
• crummy
• disheveled
• dusty
• filthy
• greasy
• grimy
• messy
• muddy
• murky
• nasty
• polluted
• sloppy
• stained
• unkempt