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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

scruff.

Someone with an untidy appearance.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/skɹʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/skɹɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/skɹʊf/Northern-England

  1. Someone with an untidy appearance.

    countable · uncountable
    That candidate will never get the job: he's a right scruff.

  2. Stubble, facial hair (on males).

    countable · uncountable

  3. Crust.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable

  4. Scurf.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

See scurf.

noun/skɹʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/skɹɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/skɹʊf/Northern-England

  1. The loose skin at the back of the neck of some animals.

  2. The back of the neck, nape; also scruff of the neck.

    rare
    He grabbed his unruly child by the scruff of the neck, and took him home.
Where this word comes from

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).

verb/skɹʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/skɹɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/skɹʊf/Northern-England

  1. To lift or carry by the scruff.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.