Word.ws English Dictionary

scruff

/skɹʌf/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/skɹɐf/

scruff noun: someone with an untidy appearance.

scruff: someone with an untidy appearance
Image: Flickr user Margo Akermark with subsequent trivial cropping, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

scruff (countable and uncountable, plural scruffs)

  1. Someone with an untidy appearance.
    • That candidate will never get the job: he's a right scruff.
  2. Stubble, facial hair (on males).
  3. (obsolete) Crust.
  4. (obsolete) Scurf.

Noun (2)

scruff (plural scruffs)

  1. The loose skin at the back of the neck of some animals.
  2. (rare) The back of the neck, nape; also scruff of the neck.
    • He grabbed his unruly child by the scruff of the neck, and took him home.

Verb

scruff (third-person singular simple present scruffs, present participle scruffing, simple past and past participle scruffed)

  1. (transitive) To lift or carry by the scruff.
    • She gently scruffed the kitten who was trying to climb her leg.2023, Anastasia Ryan, You Should Smile More

scruff meaning in Kannada

scruff in Kannada

ಹಿಂಗತ್ತು

Synonyms of scruff

Forms of scruff

Noun
pluralscruffs
Verb
third-person singular presentscruffs
present participlescruffing
past participlescruffed
pastscruffed

Plural of scruff: scruffs

Origin of scruff

See scurf.

1790, from earlier (1787) scuft and dialect scuff, influenced by scruff (“crust”). Related to North Frisian skuft (“back of the neck of a horse”) and Dutch schoft (“withers (of a horse)”), from Proto-Germanic. Compare also Old Norse skopt (“hair of the head”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐍆𐍄 (skuft, “hair of the head”), Middle High German schopf (German Schopf).

Words formed from scruff

Words that rhyme with scruff

27 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scruff

What does scruff mean?
Scruff means someone with an untidy appearance.
What is scruff in Kannada?
Scruff in Kannada is ಹಿಂಗತ್ತು. See Scruff meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is scruff?
Scruff can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce scruff?
Scruff is pronounced /skɹʌf/ (UK).
What is the plural of scruff?
The plural of scruff is scruffs.

Words near scruff in the dictionary

  1. scrudge
  2. scrudged
  3. scrudges
  4. scrudging
  5. scrue
  6. scruff
  7. scruffbag
  8. scruffbags
  9. scruffball
  10. scruffballs
  11. scruffbucket

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scruff (page history and authors); scruff (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scruff.wav.

Cite this entry: “scruff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scruff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.