Word.ws English Dictionary

scruffy

/ˈskɹʌf.i/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈskɹaf.i/

scruffy adjective: untidy in appearance; scrubby; shabby.

scruffy: untidy in appearance; scrubby; shabby
Image: Alaska Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service from Anchorage, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

scruffy (comparative scruffier, superlative scruffiest)

  1. Untidy in appearance; scrubby; shabby.
    • A scruffy little dog came scampering down the road.
    • scruffy clothes
  2. Scurfy.

Noun

scruffy (plural scruffies)

  1. (informal) An artificial intelligence researcher who believes that intelligence is too complicated (or computationally intractable) to be solved with the sorts of homogeneous system favoured by the "neats".
  2. (slang, Alaska) An arctic fox.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:scruffy.

Proper noun capitalized: Scruffy

Scruffy

  1. A given name for a dog.

scruffy meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

scruffy in Urdu

خارش زدہ

scruffy in Malayalam

worn, shabby, down at heel
മുഷിഞ്ഞ, മലിനമായ, അഴുക്കായ, പ്രാകൃതമായ, വിലക്ഷണമായ, വൃത്തികെട്ട

scruffy in Kannada

ನಯನಾಜೂಕಿಲ್ಲದ, ಒಡ್ಡೊಡ್ಡಾದ, ಕೊಳಕಾದ, ಶುಭ್ರವಾಗಿರದ

Examples of scruffy in a sentence

  • I saw that he had improved his manners if not his scruffy appearance.
  • Sometimes it takes a scruffy underdog to show the professionals what's what.
  • There was a healthy crowd: a mix of what looked like well-heeled uptowners, scruffy Brooklyn bohemians and clean-scrubbed Asian art students.

All 11 example sentences with scruffy

Forms of scruffy

Adjective
comparativescruffier
superlativescruffiest
Noun
pluralscruffies

Origin of scruffy

From scruff + -y.

From scruffy.

Words formed from scruffy

Words that rhyme with scruffy

3 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scruffy

What does scruffy mean?
Scruffy means untidy in appearance; scrubby; shabby.
What is scruffy in Urdu?
Scruffy in Urdu is خارش زدہ. See Scruffy meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is scruffy?
Scruffy can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce scruffy?
Scruffy is pronounced /ˈskɹʌf.i/ (UK).

Words near scruffy in the dictionary

  1. scruffle
  2. scruffled
  3. scruffles
  4. scruffling
  5. scruffs
  6. scruffy
  7. scruffy chic
  8. Scruggs
  9. scruin
  10. scrum
  11. scrum cap

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scruffy (page history and authors); Scruffy (page history and authors); scruffy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scruffy (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); scruffy (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-scruffy.wav.

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