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RAGGED
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having an irregular outline
Example:
herded the class into a ragged line
Classified under:
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)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Worn out from stress or strain
Example:
run ragged
Classified under:
Similar:
tired (depleted of strength or energy)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Being or dressed in clothes that are worn or torn
Example:
a ragged tramp
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
worn (affected by wear; damaged by long use)
Derivation:
raggedness (shabbiness by virtue of being in rags)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb rag
Context examples:
Everywhere was a thick litter of discarded and ragged garments, old sea-boots, leaky oilskins—all the worthless forecastle dunnage of a long voyage.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Her father read his newspaper, and her mother lamented over the ragged carpet as usual, while the tea was in preparation, and wished Rebecca would mend it; and Fanny was first roused by his calling out to her, after humphing and considering over a particular paragraph: What's the name of your great cousins in town, Fan?
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Ss-whack! ss-whack! ss-whack! went the horse-whips—for a number of the spectators, either driven onwards by the pressure behind or willing to risk some physical pain on the chance of getting a better view, had crept under the ropes and formed a ragged fringe within the outer ring.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I think I must have continued my wonder in my dreams, for, sleeping and waking, my thoughts always came back to the little punctures in her throat and the ragged, exhausted appearance of their edges—tiny though they were.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Thinking of "ABCDE" can help you remember what to watch for: • Asymmetry - the shape of one half does not match the other • Border - the edges are ragged, blurred or irregular • Color - the color is uneven and may include shades of black, brown and tan • Diameter - there is a change in size, usually an increase • Evolving - the mole has changed over the past few weeks or months
(Melanoma, NIH: National Cancer Institute)
A beggar-woman and her little boy—pale, ragged objects both—were coming up the walk, and I ran down and gave them all the money I happened to have in my purse—some three or four shillings: good or bad, they must partake of my jubilee.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But he exulted in private and longed for the time to come when he could give Jo a piece of plate, with a bear and a ragged staff on it as an appropriate coat of arms.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
As the cab drew up before the address indicated, the fog lifted a little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, a low French eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and twopenny salads, many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and many women of many different nationalities passing out, key in hand, to have a morning glass; and the next moment the fog settled down again upon that part, as brown as umber, and cut him off from his blackguardly surroundings.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow—a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
The ragged nests, so long deserted by the rooks, were gone; and the trees were lopped and topped out of their remembered shapes.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
