scragginess

English

Etymology

scraggy +‎ -ness

Noun

scragginess (uncountable)

  1. Roughness; irregularity; jaggedness.
    • 2004, Norman R. Beaupré, Marginal Enemies, →ISBN, p. 59:
      He wore the scragginess of an unshaven face like a lost man in pursuit of some safe harbor.
  2. Leanness or thinness, especially as tending toward haggardness; scrawniness.
    • 1900, Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, "A Wrong Altar" in Cupid's Garden.
      [I]f Marian's girlish slimness showed faint, prophetic signs of degenerating into scragginess, George was still far too deeply in love to heed such evil and irreverent prophecies.
    • 1922, Elinor Glyn, Man and Maid, ch. 21:
      There is not the least look of scragginess about her, just extreme slenderness, a small-boned creature of perhaps five foot four or five.
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