bedraggled en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
- /bɪˈdɹæɡl̩d/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bider. Proto-Germanic *bi- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Old English be- Middle English bi- English be- Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- Proto-Indo-European *dʰrógʰ-e-ti Proto-Germanic *draganą Proto-West Germanic *dragan Old English dragan Middle English dragen Middle English draggen Low German draggeinflu. English drag Proto-Germanic *-lōną Old English -lian Middle English -len English -le English draggle English bedraggle English -ed English bedraggled From bedraggle + -ed.
Meanings
-
Wet, limp, and unkempt; in disarray due to being doused with water, exposed to the elements, etc.
She came at night, and in a storm, with only two attendants, and stood before a peasant’s hut, tired, bedraggled, soaked with rain, “the red print of her lost crown still girdling her brow,” and implored admittance—and was refused!
1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), “”, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, pages 532 and 535:A low rumbling sound was heard; a subterraneous hum; and then all held their breaths; as bedraggled with trailing ropes, and harpoons, and lances, a vast form shot lengthwise, but obliquely from the sea.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Chase.—Third Day.”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 627:As a rule he was neat in his person, but now his clothes were in disorder. He looked suddenly bedraggled. I was convinced he had been drinking, and I smiled.
1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXVIII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:Finally delivering “Room on Fire,” the follow-up to their much ballyhooed debut album, the well-heeled but stylishly bedraggled locals try to dispel accusations of one-trick-ponyism.
2003, The New Yorker, page 17:No three tramps that one could have met in a Surrey lane could have looked more hopeless and bedraggled.
1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter XIV, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
-
Decaying, decrepit or dilapidated.
She is only coming to gloat over my bedraggled and flowerless borders and to sing the praises of her own detestably over-cultivated garden. I'm sick of being told that it's the envy of the neighbourhood; it's like everything else that belongs to her—her car, her dinner-parties, even her headaches, they are all superlative; no one else ever had anything like them.
1919, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Occasional Garden”, in R[othay] R[eynolds], editor, The Toys of Peace and Other Papers. […], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head […], →OCLC, page 239:It was a tall, shabby building, that cannot have been painted for years, and it had so bedraggled an air that the houses on each side of it looked neat and clean.
1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XI, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more bedraggled | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most bedraggled | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Deriveds
unbedraggled · bedraggledly · bedraggledness
Relateds
draggled · draggle-tail · bedraggle · draggle-tailed
Synonyms
scratty · grotty · schleppy · crumbling · unshaven · run-down · slovenlike · frowsy · ruinous · unkemmed · beaten up · shabby · scruffy · blowsy · tatterdemalion · grungy · piggy · neglected · unfine · broken-down · bedraggled · slatternly · tumbledown · down at heel · draggled · slobbish · unkempt · derelict · shabby · trampish · hashy · dowdy · scrungy · ramshackle · downgone · slovenly · seedy · mangy · draggle-tailed · sluttish · out at the heels · grufty · tacky · slummocky · draggled · ragtag · mean · sloppy · scroungy · dowdyish · qualifier · mean · tore up · tacky · ribby · dishevelled · beat up · timeworn · slobby · seedy · beat · schlumpy · dilapidated · slammocky · bedraggled · frumpy · scroungy · scrofulous
Translations (24)
ga giobach (unkempt) · ga úcaiste (unkempt) · nl onderkomen (decaying, dilapidated) · cmn 满身泥污的 (unkempt) · nl bouwvallig (decaying, dilapidated) · ga útamáilte (unkempt) · ga sraoilleach (unkempt) · mi hūtotoi (unkempt) · cs umolousaný (unkempt) · de heruntergekommen (decaying, dilapidated) · cs urousaný (unkempt) · ga aimlithe (unkempt) · ga draoibeáilte (unkempt) · hu elhanyagolt (decaying, dilapidated) · pdt bekjwiemt (unkempt) · cmn 全身湿透的 (unkempt) · hu ápolatlan (unkempt) · de ungepflegt (unkempt) · el ατημέλητος (unkempt) · nl onverzorgd (unkempt) · mi hūtoitoi (unkempt) · fr débraillé (decaying, dilapidated) · de baufällig (decaying, dilapidated) · de verdreckt (unkempt)