scragginess

English

Etymology

From scraggy +‎ -ness.

Noun

scragginess (uncountable)

1. Roughness; irregularity; jaggedness.
   • 2004, Norman R. Beaupré, Marginal Enemies, →ISBN, page 59:

     He wore the scragginess of an unshaven face like a lost man in pursuit of some safe harbor.

2. Leanness or thinness, especially as tending toward haggardness; scrawniness.
   • 1900, Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, “A Wrong Altar”, in Cupid's Garden:

     [I]f Marian's girlish slimness showed faint, prophetic signs of degenerating into scragginess, George was still far too deeply in love to heed such evil and irreverent prophecies.

   • 1922, Elinor Glyn, chapter 21, in Man and Maid:

     There is not the least look of scragginess about her, just extreme slenderness, a small-boned creature of perhaps five foot four or five.

Related terms

• scraggy
• scraggily