scaggy carpet
- noun
- US
:
alfombra desgastada
- After years of heavy use, the scaggy carpet in the hallway was full of stains and holes.
Examples
-
They decided to replace the scaggy carpet before putting their house on the market.
-
Visitors often commented on the old-fashioned furniture and the scaggy carpet in the living room.
-
The living room has a scaggy carpet that needs replacing.
-
The scaggy carpets in the hallway need to be cleaned.
-
After years of heavy use, the scaggy carpet in the hallway was full of stains and holes.
-
They decided to replace the scaggy carpet before putting their house on the market.
-
Visitors often commented on the old-fashioned furniture and the scaggy carpet in the living room.
Antonyms
How Worn
- US
7
6.6
- UK
2
6.0
33
2.5
4
2.1
1
4.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
scaggy + carpet
The phrase is a simple adjective + noun combination where the noun 'carpet' keeps its literal meaning and the overall sense is directly the adjective applied to the carpet; if a learner knows the meaning of 'scaggy' as 'worn-out/ratty' they can immediately infer 'scaggy carpet' = a carpet in poor condition. Note that 'scaggy' is rare/non-standard and may be unknown to many learners, but transparency here is judged conditional on knowing the constituent words.
Etymology
Scaggy carpet may come from the image of a carpet that looks like a rag: the word scaggy suggests loose, shaggy threads and thin patches on the carpet. That picture explains why the phrase means 'worn-out'.