How to Use haggard in a Sentence

haggard

adjective
  • She looked tired and haggard.
  • We were shocked by his haggard appearance.
  • Both of them were old and haggard by the time their last pictures arrived.
    — Kyle Smith, National Review, 1 June 2022
  • Some have unsteady hands and haggard faces, a stark reminder of his early days there.
    — Beth Warren, The Courier-Journal, 24 Aug. 2017
  • While their haggard parents waited to check in, bricks became strewn all over the lobby floor.
    — Jason Wilson, Washington Post, 23 Dec. 2019
  • No one’s going to want to watch a haggard perimenopausal woman who’s badly lit.
    — Mikey O'Connell, HollywoodReporter, 15 Jan. 2026
  • On his way to a wedding, at the very door of the banquet hall, a man is buttonholed by a haggard and compelling stranger.
    — James Parker, The Atlantic, 13 May 2020
  • Both looked haggard and appeared to be speaking into a webcam, like those on the top of a laptop.
    — Masoud Popalzai, CNN, 22 June 2017
  • And these are just the immediate concerns of what will likely be a haggard nation.
    — Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 17 Mar. 2020
  • My girlfriend is tired and haggard by the time the child goes home, and this causes friction in our relationship.
    — Annie Lane, oregonlive, 19 Mar. 2020
  • At the far left, the haggard visage of the procuress, finger pointing in defiance, eggs them on.
    — Dallas News, 30 Mar. 2022
  • Similarly, there will be a trio of haggard publicists, all working to clear their client's good name.
    — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 28 Mar. 2018
  • My face had become gaunt and haggard, my sallow skin formed shadows etched beneath my eyes that no amount of makeup could disguise.
    — Emily Listfield, Allure, 8 May 2021
  • The haggard spines of a once-proud pavilion now choked with encroaching vegetation.
    — Mike Klingaman, baltimoresun.com, 3 Oct. 2019
  • The puppets, by design, look noble and haggard; life on Trash Island isn’t easy.
    — Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 16 Mar. 2018
  • His piercing eyes, set deeply in his haggard face under a heavy black turban, stared belligerently at the camera.
    — Amir Ahmadi Arian, The New York Review of Books, 30 Sep. 2020
  • Restrooms that looked pretty haggard, too, were refreshed with drinking fountains and new ceramic tile on the walls and floors.
    — Tim Harlow, Star Tribune, 28 May 2021
  • This haggard old sponge simply can’t be expected to absorb everything.
    — Ali Francis, Bon Appétit, 4 Mar. 2022
  • As the truck drove down a side street toward Harper, three haggard prostitutes approached the window.
    — John Carlisle, Detroit Free Press, 16 Sep. 2017
  • Gregorio, a 62-year-old former carpenter who lives alone, looked haggard.
    — Sarah Varney, CNN, 11 May 2018
  • Or he could be bundled into a trade as the Guardians search for ways to improve their haggard offense from 2021.
    — Paul Hoynes, cleveland, 24 Nov. 2021
  • The 79-year-oldfell into a deep depression, stopped eating and became a haggard shell of himself.
    — oregonlive, 5 Mar. 2023
  • Or to anyone who has encountered the tired-looking mannequins and haggard sales associates at many department stores.
    — Michael Corkery, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2017
  • Herndon once found Lincoln in a haggard state, having spent two full days trying to solve the old conundrum of squaring the circle.
    — Jordan Ellenberg, WSJ, 22 May 2021
  • Last May he was arrested for driving under the influence and his haggard face was paraded around the world in his police mugshot.
    — Rob Hodgetts, CNN, 3 Apr. 2018
  • With strands of long hair sticking up and smeared over his receding hair line, and open shirt exposing his chest, Yow resembled a haggard taxi driver.
    — Bob Gendron, chicagotribune.com, 10 Dec. 2017
  • The city sleeps less than even New York, and its permanent wakefulness leaves it haggard, in desperate need of a hair transplant.
    — Gary Shteyngart, Smithsonian, 29 June 2017
  • Among them were drivers, like Richard Chow, who had gone on hunger strike and were now visibly haggard, and some who were too weak to get around without wheelchairs.
    — Caroline Spivack, Curbed, 3 Nov. 2021
  • When one Russian unit arrived in eastern Ukraine, it was quickly whittled down to a haggard few, according to one of its soldiers.
    — Thomas Gibbons-Neff, New York Times, 16 Dec. 2022
  • The anguished scene that will stay with me for a long while came late, a moment of motherly longing, when Silvia, now grimy, haggard and delirious, thinks about her little boy.
    — Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'haggard.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: