Rent or worn into tatters, or till the texture is broken; as, a ragged coat; a ragged sail. [1913 Webster]
Broken with rough edges; having jags; uneven; rough; jagged; as, ragged rocks. [1913 Webster]
Hence, harsh and disagreeable to the ear; dissonant. Herbert. [1913 Webster]
Wearing tattered clothes; as, a ragged fellow. [1913 Webster]
Rough; shaggy; rugged. [1913 Webster]
"What shepherd owns those ragged sheep?" [1913 Webster]

Ragged lady (Bot.), the fennel flower (Nigella Damascena). -- Ragged robin (Bot.), a plant of the genus Lychnis (Lychnis Flos-cuculi), cultivated for its handsome flowers, which have the petals cut into narrow lobes. -- Ragged sailor (Bot.), prince's feather (Polygonum orientale). -- Ragged school, a free school for poor children, where they are taught and in part fed; -- a name given at first because they came in their common clothing. [Eng.]

top

OXFORD DICTIONARY

ragged, adj.
1 (of clothes etc.) torn; frayed.
2 rough; shaggy; hanging in tufts.
3 (of a person) in ragged clothes.
4 with a broken or jagged outline or surface.
5 faulty; imperfect.
6 lacking finish, smoothness, or uniformity (ragged rhymes).
7 exhausted (esp. be run ragged).

Idiom

ragged robin a pink-flowered campion, Lychnis flos-cuculi, with tattered petals.

Derivative

raggedly adv. raggedness n. raggedy adj.

Etymology

ME f. ON roggvathr tufted

top

THESAURUS

ragged

all in, bad, badgered, baited, battered, beat-up, bedeviled, bedraggled, beset, blowzy, brassy, brazen, broken-down, bugged, bullyragged, capricious, careless, changeable, changing, chintzy, chivied, choked, choppy, cleft, cloven, coarse, corrugated, cracked, cragged, craggy, crinkled, croaking, croaky, crumpled, cut, deteriorated, deviating, deviative, deviatory, deviled, different, dilapidated, discordant, disordered, disorderly, divaricate, divergent, diversified, diversiform, dog-tired, dogged, dowdy, down-at-heel, down-at-the-heels, drabbletailed, draggled, draggletailed, dry, erose, erratic, exhausted, fagged out, fatigued, frayed, frazzled, frowzy, frumpish, frumpy, full of holes, grating, gravelly, grubby, gruff, guttural, harassed, harried, harsh, harsh-sounding, heckled, hectored, hoarse, holey, hounded, husky, imperfect, impulsive, in pieces, in rags, in shreds, in tatters, inconsistent, inconstant, informal, ironbound, irregular, jagged, jaggy, jerky, lacerate, lacerated, loose, lumpen, mangled, mercurial, messy, metallic, motley, mussy, mutable, mutilated, needled, neglected, negligent, nicked, nipped at, nonconformist, nonstandard, nonuniform, notched, patchy, persecuted, pestered, picked on, plagued, pluralistic, poky, pooped out, poor, quartered, raggedy, rasping, ratty, raucid, raucous, rent, ridged, ripped, riven, rockbound, rocky, rough, roupy, rude, rugged, rugose, rugous, ruinous, run-down, saw-toothed, sawtooth, scragged, scraggly, scraggy, scratchy, scruffy, seedy, serrate, serrated, severed, shabby, shaggy, shoddy, shredded, slack, slatternly, slipshod, slit, sloppy, slovenly, sluttish, snagged, snaggled, snaggy, sordid, spasmodic, spent, splintered, split, sporadic, squalid, squawking, squawky, stertorous, stony, strangled, tacky, tattered, tatty, teased, thick, threadbare, throaty, tinny, tired, toothed, tormented, torn, unequable, unequal, uneven, unkempt, unneat, unorthodox, unsightly, unstable, unsteady, unsystematic, untidy, ununiform, variable, variegated, variform, various, varying, wavering, weary, worn out, worried, wrinkled, zigzag

top

ROGET THESAURUS

ragged

Divestment

N divestment, taking off, nudity, bareness, undress, dishabille, the altogether, nudation, denudation, decortication, depilation, excoriation, desquamation, molting, exfoliation, trichosis, divested, bare, naked, nude, undressed, undraped, denuded, exposed, in dishabille, bald, threadbare, ragged, callow, roofless, in a state of nature, in nature's garb, in the buff, in native buff, in birthday suit, in puris naturalibus, with nothing on, stark naked, stark raving naked, bald as a coot, bare as the back of one's hand, out at elbows, barefoot, bareback, barebacked, leafless, napless, hairless.

For further exploring for "ragged" in Webster Dictionary Online