Literary notes about ragged (AI summary)
The term "ragged" serves to evoke a vivid sense of wear and disrepair, whether applied to clothing, physical objects, or even landscapes. In literature, it is often used to highlight poverty and neglect, as when a child is described as a "bare-footed, ragged urchin" ([1]) or when a garment or shelter appears tattered and unkempt ([2], [3]). At the same time, the word can suggest a rough, irregular quality—whether in describing the torn edge of a paper ([4]) or the jagged outline of mountains ([5])—thereby contributing to an atmosphere of raw or unpolished reality. Such varied usage underscores the adaptability of "ragged" as a descriptor that conveys both literal and metaphorical degradation across a wide range of narrative contexts ([6], [7], [8]).
- To Weed, only such work came as a bare-footed, ragged urchin of eleven was supposed to be capable of doing.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - She picked it up and carried it along with her in her dirty ragged skirt.
— from Filipino Popular Tales - A ragged sack holds no grain, a poor man is not taken into counsel.
— from A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs - This note, of about six lines, was written on a strip of white paper whose end-edges were ragged.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain - The lake now began to expand, and their route lay along a wide reach, that was lined, as before, by high and ragged mountains.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper - On the wall were two metal plates, ragged at the edges.
— from Second Variety by Philip K. Dick - A pretty strong wind was blowing from the ocean, although as yet there was no sea on, and swift, light, ragged clouds were driving across the sky.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - On it lay a ragged grey scarf and an odd felt hat of semiclerical shape.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
