How to Use scrawny in a Sentence

scrawny

adjective
Definition of scrawnynext
Synonyms for scrawnynext
  • The only plants in their yard were a couple of scrawny bushes.
  • Children kick balls around, and a few scrawny dogs loll in the shade.
    — Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2019
  • The chickens prove tough and scrawny and rather gruesome to kill.
    — Kanishk Tharoor, The Atlantic, 10 June 2018
  • At 16, Sam is tall for his age and his scrawny frame has about 50 pounds on me.
    — Sarah Evans, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020
  • If the cart has no chance, the scrawny teenager driving has less.
    — Frank Fellone, Arkansas Online, 3 Apr. 2021
  • The curtain clung to his scrawny legs, itty‑bitty, bulging chicken legs.
    — Jonas Eika, The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2021
  • Christian Petrie, a scrawny Klansman in his 20s said to me.
    — Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 22 Feb. 2018
  • On one of his first days, Clark ran into a scruffy, scrawny blonde dude with a patchy Fu Manchu.
    — Chris Ballard, SI.com, 2 May 2018
  • Some shacks pushed scrawny birds, others served brawny brutes.
    — Aimee Levitt, Chicago Reader, 8 Feb. 2018
  • And if that’s dancing with scrawny [sic] little f—, so be it.
    — Joelle Goldstein, PEOPLE.com, 11 July 2019
  • My dad ate one of those scrawny blue tomatoes, and then stopped moving.
    — Dennard Dayle, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2022
  • Mann plays Matt, a shy and scrawny kid who wears a patch over an empty eye socket.
    — John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Aug. 2017
  • At baseball practice, a scrawny kid with a vest and a gun stood sentinel.
    — Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2022
  • Simba had grown so scrawny that his rib cage was exposed.
    — Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 24 Apr. 2017
  • Then a scrawny animal crawled out from under the West Side house into the yard.
    — Vincent T. Davis, ExpressNews.com, 21 Oct. 2019
  • Panas then returned to the estate as a scrawny one-eyed chicken, bald and vicious.
    — Rachel Polonsky, The New York Review of Books, 11 May 2021
  • Both too scrawny, too slow, too pretty, having too much fun.
    — Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 Feb. 2018
  • Tailgating is no longer the home of cold, waxy pizza and scrawny wings swimming in cold grease.
    — The Editors, Field & Stream, 20 Nov. 2019
  • As the movie explains to us, Brad used to be a little scrawny kid, but over the last five years turned into a big jock (and also a big jerk).
    — Rachel Paige, refinery29.com, 5 July 2019
  • The twins grew and grew, turning from scrawny baby birds into soft little piglets.
    — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 10 Mar. 2021
  • One of the migrants, a scrawny 21-year-old in a camouflage shirt, struggled to remove his black-cord choker, and the agent snipped it off.
    — New York Times, 7 Aug. 2021
  • But that seemed a long shot for a scrawny youngster who grew up shining shoes in the Bauru railway station.
    — Frank Dell'apa, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Dec. 2022
  • Who knew this scrawny blue-eyed kid with the messy blond hair would grow up to become an elite talent in his rookie NHL season?
    — Kyle Fredrickson, The Denver Post, 8 Dec. 2019
  • The centerpiece of the room is a cat playing a piano, a rather impressive piece of theme park robotics in which the scrawny cat stalks the keys.
    — Todd Martens Game Critic, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2021
  • Worried his scrawny frame would be a disadvantage in jail, the 25-year-old began hitting the gym.
    — Washington Post, 19 May 2021
  • Some nights Zarmeena Sardar dreams that Lina, looking scrawny, her skin darkened, calls out to her pleading for help.
    — Zabihullah Ghazi, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Sep. 2022
  • Two healthy but scrawny plants have produced one growing pepper.
    — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 25 June 2018
  • The boys wore yellow, the official color of the Thai royal family, and their scrawny frames ducked to clear the three-foot ceiling.
    — Max Marshall, SI.com, 26 June 2019
  • His first posts, in November 2018, were mostly clips of a scrawny teen backflipping into water.
    — Time, 6 June 2023
  • But there was a problem with the initial designs for the film’s four reptile heroes: Instead of looking like muscular teens, these Turtles were scrawny and malnourished, barely strong enough to wield nunchucks or hurl a throwing star.
    — Brent Lang, Variety, 26 July 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scrawny.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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