ragged
- adjective
- /ˈræɡɪd/
- The sun looks fractured now; the whole sky is cut up into ragged patches of gray and blue.
She drew in a long, ragged breath and whispered sevenfold.
- She drew in a long, ragged breath and whispered sevenfold.
- Dragonfly spoke in a ragged raging whisper.
Examples
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Of course, it's a little ragged now... ...but this once used to be the finest farm for miles.
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The path was marked by a ragged line of rocks that twisted along the hillside.
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The top of it got a little ragged, like maybe the wind took hold of it.
Fiction book (1991) -
You can see all the painted ends are ragged, so they cut them.
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The theater's looking a little ragged on the outside, and the inside.
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I've never seen such a ragged line.
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The photograph functions both as a ragged document and as a relic of a lost civilization.
Academic text (2014) -
The light pointed ahead, reflected from the sharp, ragged walls, and disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel.
Fiction book (1990) -
In the north and west, ragged denim clouds piled against a light blue early evening sky.
Fiction book (1990) -
Bull calls up from below, where a ragged group of woodsmen lies nervously in ambush.
Fiction book (1991)
Synonyms
Not smooth or level, with parts higher and lower
Having edges that are ripped and uneven
An edge or outline with rough, sharp points
Something that looks worn, torn, and messy
Thin and untidy in appearance, often with rough, uneven ends
Cloth edges that are worn and have loose threads
Rough and uneven with many jagged edges
A surface that feels rough because it has small bumps or cuts
Not smoothed with a tool, leaving rough or sharp edges
Appears torn or worn, like old clothes with holes
Antonyms
Compounds
An orchid from the eastern United States with greenish flowers and a deeply cut lip
A greenish wildflower that has a fringed, deeply cut lower petal and grows in the eastern United States
A small orchid from the eastern United States with greenish flowers and a fringed, deeply cut lip
How Smooth
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Ragged comes from the simple word rag which means 'a torn piece of cloth'. A torn cloth has rough, uneven edges, so ragged is used for things with an 'uneven' or rough outline.