How to Use scruff in a Sentence

scruff

noun
  • She held the kitten by the scruff of its neck.
  • Sure, his scruff is still a bit patchy, but the curls more than make up for it.
    — Megan Gustashaw, GQ, 11 Oct. 2017
  • The guy was lucky to not have been frogmarched out by the scruff of his neck.
    — August Brown, latimes.com, 27 Apr. 2018
  • But for some men, the scruff on their chins doesn't match up with the hair on their heads.
    — Kelly O'Sullivan, Woman's Day, 26 Jan. 2017
  • And while his stubble is now proper scruff, his neck is all cleaned up.
    — Megan Gustashaw, GQ, 12 Jan. 2018
  • The uniform isn’t so much suit-and-tie as plaid shirt, work boots, and two-day scruff.
    — Laura Regensdorf, Vogue, 30 Apr. 2018
  • Amis’s saw-toothed sentences seized me by the scruff and carried me off for good.
    — Parul Sehgal, New York Times, 20 Oct. 2020
  • Something about a man in a beanie (with a little bit of scruff 😍) just looks so good.
    — Yoora Kim, Seventeen, 28 Mar. 2023
  • In a video from the lessons, Tilly pulls her pup through the water by his neck scruff.
    — People Staff, PEOPLE.com, 8 June 2022
  • But the most classically stylish amount of scruff to have is none at all.
    — Justin Fenner, Robb Report, 11 Mar. 2026
  • This week there was an abundance of admirable beards, scruff, and stubble.
    — Megan Gustashaw, GQ, 5 Nov. 2017
  • The 26-year-old has truly taken his chance by the scruff of the neck.
    — SI.com, 16 May 2018
  • His powerful right hand seizes me by the scruff of my neck and directs my head to a spot in the sky.
    — J. B. MacKinnon, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2020
  • The resulting portraits capture their scruff, their bow ties and their wild eyes.
    — Jenna Ross, Star Tribune, 29 Dec. 2020
  • His tired eyes are proof, as is the scruff on his cheeks that's mixing into his graying goatee.
    — USA TODAY, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Spencer is thirty-five and barrel-chested, with three-day scruff on his smiling face.
    — John Kenney, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2026
  • The point is, neither of them has hair and scruff that's the same exact length or the exact same texture.
    — Megan Gustashaw, GQ, 6 Jan. 2018
  • But the primal thrill of watching Rooney take games by the scruff of the neck at will never fade.
    — The Athletic Uk Staff, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2026
  • Nope, this is not at all a car that encourages you to take it by the scruff, or hoon it, or whatever.
    — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 9 Oct. 2022
  • Researchers who want to observe an opossum up close merely grab it by the scruff of its neck, or lift it up by the tail.
    — Elaine Godfrey, The Atlantic, 20 July 2022
  • The traditional vows seize love by the scruff of the neck and set it down in real life, in the real world.
    — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 29 May 2019
  • The cabin functions are intuitive and friendly to use — for those who choose to grab it by the scruff of the neck.
    — Mark Maynard, sandiegouniontribune.com, 11 Aug. 2017
  • This permanent chip is inserted under the skin on the scruff of their neck and can’t be tampered with.
    — Jessie Quinn, USA Today, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Two kittens, held by the scruff of their necks, were recently lowered into a garbage can and abandoned.
    — Max Londberg, kansascity, 8 Aug. 2017
  • Police described him as a white man in his late 20s or early 30s with brown scruff on his face.
    — CBS News, 30 June 2017
  • Bert’s approach was to grab readers by the scruff of the neck and rush them through a volley of bullet points to the bottom of the page.
    — Bruce McCall, The New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2020
  • Nanook comes to embody a way of facing the world, of taking it by the scruff of the neck and wringing existence from it with a laugh.
    — Peter Cowie, WSJ, 12 Aug. 2022
  • These were the words of my grab-life-by-the-scruff-of-the-neck husband after finishing our first six months bobbing about in the sea.
    — Kellie Pollock, CNN, 17 Apr. 2018
  • Curiously enough, shocking the world is the reason Rogers’s scruff works.
    — Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 18 June 2019
  • The Reds are indeed crying out for a bit of steel in midfield; someone to take the game by the scruff of the neck when the chips are down.
    — SI.com, 29 Apr. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scruff.' 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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