Word.ws English Dictionary

looked as if one had been dragged through a hedge backwards

looked as if one had been dragged through a hedge backwards is the simple past and past participle of look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Meaning of look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards

Verb

look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards (third-person singular simple present looks as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards, present participle looking as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards, simple past and past participle looked as if one had been dragged through a hedge backwards)

  1. (UK, humorous, informal, intransitive, simile) To look extremely dishevelled.
    • Bill is right, for I heard him say myself she [a racehorse] couldn't stay; he'd eat her if she won: drawn too fine; was on the go; done too much work; had a bad night, and looked as if she was dragged through a hedge backwards, and hadn't eaten a feed of corn for a month.1865, R. H. Copperthwaite, “Turf Topics”, in The Turf and the Racehorse […], London: Day and Son, […], →OCLC, pages 78–79

Questions about looked as if one had been dragged through a hedge backwards

What is looked as if one had been dragged through a hedge backwards the simple past and past participle of?
Looked as if one had been dragged through a hedge backwards is the simple past and past participle of look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Words near looked as if one had been dragged through a hedge backwards in the dictionary

  1. looked ahead
  2. looked ahead to
  3. looked alike
  4. looked alive
  5. looked around
  6. looked as if one had been dragged through a hedge backwards
  7. looked as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence
  8. looked at
  9. looked at oneself in the mirror
  10. looked away
  11. looked back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: looked as if one had been dragged through a hedge backwards (page history and authors); look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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