Scraggily

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Having a rough, uneven, or jagged look, often describing plants, hair, or edges
2. Characterized by an irregular or spiky appearance, giving a wild or untidy impression
3. Displaying a coarse and uneven texture or outline, suggesting disorder or lack of grooming

Etymology: "Scraggily" is simply "scraggy" with the adverbial ending "-ly" attached, so it describes doing something in a scraggy manner, that is, in a thin, bony, ragged or unkempt way. The word's interest lies in the base it grows from rather than in any dramatic twist of its own. "Scraggy" describes something lean and bony or stringy, and it has the same general sense of roughness and irregularity found in the related "scrag," a word for a thin, bony piece of meat or a scrawny neck. The "-ly" ending turns that adjective into an adverb, so "scraggily" is used for how something looks or is arranged, such as a hedge growing in uneven tufts or a beard left patchy and untended.

Synonyms: unkempt, raggedly, disheveled

Antonyms: neatly, tidily