RAGGED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ragged mean? 

• RAGGED (adjective)
  The adjective RAGGED has 3 senses:

1. being or dressed in clothes that are worn or torn

2. worn out from stress or strain

3. having an irregular outline

  Familiarity information: RAGGED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAGGED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Being or dressed in clothes that are worn or torn

Context example:

a ragged tramp

Similar:

worn (affected by wear; damaged by long use)

Derivation:

raggedness (shabbiness by virtue of being in rags)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Worn out from stress or strain

Context example:

run ragged

Similar:

tired (depleted of strength or energy)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Having an irregular outline

Context example:

herded the class into a ragged line

Similar:

uneven (not even or uniform as e.g. in shape or texture)

Derivation:

raggedness (a texture of a surface or edge that is not smooth but is irregular and uneven)

 Context examples 

A cold wind blew up from the sea and ragged clouds drifted swiftly across the sky.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was all but naked, a ragged and fire-scorched skin hanging part way down his back, but on his body there was much hair.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

When I saw him in the light, I observed, not only that his hair was long and ragged, but that his face was burnt dark by the sun.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from a book.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

As he hung over the coffin, his face was concealed by long locks of ragged hair; but one vast hand was extended, in colour and apparent texture like that of a mummy.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I was turning away from him when I observed that something projected from the front of his ragged jacket.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Morlighem's new topography shows southern Greenland's ragged, crumbling coastline is scored by more than 100 canyons beneath glaciers that empty into the ocean.

(Hidden Greenland canyons mean more sea level rise, NASA)

He was the figure that stood forth representative of the whole miserable mass of weaklings and inefficients who perished according to biological law on the ragged confines of life.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A torn, ragged, mangled wound, or an accidental cut of esophagus.

(Laceration Of Esophagus, NCI Thesaurus)