The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ragged \Rag"ged\ (r[a^]g"g[e^]d), a. [From Rag, n.]
Rent or worn into tatters, or till the texture is broken; as, a ragged coat; a ragged sail.
Broken with rough edges; having jags; uneven; rough; jagged; as, ragged rocks.
Hence, harsh and disagreeable to the ear; dissonant. [R.] ``A ragged noise of mirth.''
--Herbert.Wearing tattered clothes; as, a ragged fellow.
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Rough; shaggy; rugged.
What shepherd owns those ragged sheep?
--Dryden.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.] [1913 Webster] -- Rag"ged*ly, adv. -- Rag"ged*ness, n.
Usage examples of "ragged sailor".
And here she was, in ragged sailor-boy togs in a foreign port in a run-down tavern.
It just reached the Pluto's beak-head bows and caught round a remnant of the standing rigging of the bowsprit, where a ragged sailor astride the spar seized it with a wave of his arm.
Trian saw himthe wizard saw everyonebut did not give the ragged sailor a second glance.