How to Use ragged in a Sentence

ragged

adjective
  • You look a little ragged—did you have a rough week?
  • This will help avoid ragged grass tips.
    — Mallory Carra, The Spruce, 11 June 2026
  • Any cut edges should be even, not ragged.
    — Sheena Chihak, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 Apr. 2026
  • These clouds have small tufts at their tops with a ragged base.
    — Noel Kirkpatrick, Treehugger, 7 Aug. 2025
  • But the work was running him ragged.
    — John Swansburg, The Atlantic, 15 June 2026
  • The ragged trees of my youth, up on the hills, looked like ghosts.
    — New York Times, 6 Oct. 2021
  • By the time the credits rolled my heart was ragged.
    — Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Her once ragged fur transformed.
    — Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Press to seal, trim any ragged edges, and crimp edges with tines of fork.
    — Tribune News Service, cleveland, 14 Mar. 2022
  • The ragged scar running throat to navel, from his open-heart surgery.
    — oregonlive.com, 16 June 2019
  • So, the books around it sparkle on the shelf, and this book alone is old and ragged.
    — Literary Hub, 23 Apr. 2026
  • And the house on the corner that had a ragged tarp over the leaky roof.
    — John Carlisle, Freep.com, 13 Nov. 2025
  • If the edges look ragged with tan or white tips, your mower blade is at fault.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Keep an eye out for holes and ragged edges in brassica leaves.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Jan. 2022
  • There were also ragged nerves to soothe and doubts to banish.
    — Karla Peterson, sandiegouniontribune.com, 21 May 2017
  • Even the females sported this ragged look, but in warm brown.
    — Dave Taft, New York Times, 22 Feb. 2018
  • These men and women have been run ragged and are still running strong.
    — Caitlin Yilek, CBS News, 25 Aug. 2021
  • Her breath was becoming more ragged.
    — Hazlitt, 7 Jan. 2026
  • An unkempt lawn with ragged edges signals a lack of care to all who pass it by.
    — Sophie Flaxman, Better Homes & Gardens, 11 June 2025
  • Kagalula had to restart his life from scratch and now lives in a ragged straw hut.
    — Alec Jacobson, National Geographic, 3 May 2019
  • And then they have been amped up in a way that still maintains some of that raw sort of ragged edge.
    — Joel Feder, The Drive, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Those Blades Dull blades leave behind rough, ragged leaf tips.
    — Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 24 May 2026
  • No one seemed to notice the ragged man walking to his suicide.
    — Ted Jackson, NOLA.com, 3 Feb. 2018
  • The nail on my right hand, the ragged ending to a difficult day.
    — Mary Jo Bang, The New Yorker, 27 June 2022
  • This keeps the paint from tearing and creating a ragged edge.
    — Jeanne Huber, Washington Post, 8 June 2020
  • The ragged start for the Rockets offense might have been a good thing.
    — Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle, 19 Jan. 2018
  • My breath is nervous and ragged but my will determined.
    — Vanita Salisbury, AFAR Media, 6 Nov. 2025
  • The ragged assembly smelled of sweat, camp smoke and weeks of combat.
    — Thomas Curwen Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 5 Dec. 2021
  • He is left there in the hallway to recover, like a ragged doll of a wet fish.
    — Devin Kelly, Longreads, 26 Jan. 2023
  • In the distance, rising against the stars, was a ragged range of mountains.
    — Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Mar. 2024

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

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