How to Use scruffy in a Sentence

scruffy

adjective
  • The neighborhood is full of dilapidated houses with scruffy backyards.
  • His scruffy fur spread out around his face like a lion's mane.
    — Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 July 2025
  • Shawn is tall and lean, with long dreadlocks and a scruffy beard.
    — Richard Mertens, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Mar. 2022
  • Its sound, a heaving wave with scruffy edges, is easy to get lost in.
    — Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2021
  • Both pups have one floppy ear and a scruffy coat that begs to be cuddled.
    — Kelli Bender, People.com, 20 June 2025
  • The 36-year-old entered the room with a scruffy beard and weary look.
    — Chloé Cooper Jones, GQ, 25 May 2018
  • The scruffy children in the streets of the ghetto — one of them could have been me.
    — Bryan Marquard, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Sep. 2023
  • Along the way, the train passed rows of small grocery stores, churches and scruffy palm trees.
    — Rachel Swan, SFChronicle.com, 10 Dec. 2019
  • Even a scruffy journalist like me could afford to live the dream.
    — Bernhard Warner, Fortune, 9 June 2020
  • One child played with his beard, and the scruffy Duke happily obliged.
    — Erica Gonzales, Harper's BAZAAR, 11 July 2018
  • Both victims described him as a white man with brown hair and scruffy facial hair.
    — Ajc Homepage, ajc, 14 Mar. 2018
  • The man was described as an older white man with gray hair and scruffy facial hair.
    — Joe Robertson, kansascity, 25 Feb. 2018
  • Shavitz died in 2015, but his scruffy face still graces his products.
    — OregonLive.com, 25 Oct. 2017
  • Moore showed off a fresh haircut and his scruffy salt-and-pepper beard in the selfie.
    — Rachel Raposas, People.com, 3 Dec. 2024
  • Meanwhile, others joked that the scruffy look would land retweeters years of good luck.
    — Char Adams, PEOPLE.com, 27 June 2017
  • Pitt also sports a scruffy look in the ad, showing off a salt-and-pepper beard.
    — Catherine Santino, PEOPLE, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Clientele were desert rats, young and old, some long-haired and scruffy, some clean-shaven with cowboy hats.
    — Rosecrans Baldwin, Travel + Leisure, 30 Mar. 2023
  • The suspect, described as a man in a blue and white shirt with a scruffy beard, was never found.
    — Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, OregonLive.com, 1 May 2018
  • Labubu, the plush toy line of scruffy cute-ugly monsters, could be headed to the big screen.
    — Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 14 Nov. 2025
  • The older people, who should have known better, were worse, and the scruffy men were worst of all.
    — Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Nov. 2021
  • Reiner, with his head shaved and a scruffy goatee, wore a yellow prison top with blue prison pants.
    — Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 29 Apr. 2026
  • Gnarled trees and scruffy brush fill one side of the road, on the other the sandy embankment of the beach.
    — Literary Hub, 11 Aug. 2025
  • Richards, who is thirty-six, with a scruffy beard, was wearing a navy barn jacket and grimy jeans.
    — Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2021
  • Their locks are scruffy, scraggly; tousled for the boys, and wispy for those whose boyhoods were long ago.
    — Michael Paulson Roderick Aichinger, New York Times, 24 Aug. 2022
  • Marchant, a scruffy professor at BU, was a rock star of rock study.
    — David Kushner, WIRED, 4 Apr. 2024
  • After takeoff, the same woman went to the bar to get a drink and spotted said scruffy man.
    — Samantha Leal, Marie Claire, 27 Jan. 2016
  • My heart smiled at the sight of the scruffy little bird splashing about in the garden fountain.
    — Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Nov. 2022
  • People instantly fell in love with her black, scruffy fur and hopeful face.
    — Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 Aug. 2025
  • Tindall wore a black suit with a lavender tie and white pocket square and sported a scruffy beard.
    — Kate Storey, Town & Country, 19 May 2018
  • In one photo, two teen-age girls sit on the curb in a motel parking lot, next to a scruffy patch of grass.
    — Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 2 Apr. 2020

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