1519 W. Horman Vulgaria xxi. f. 177^v Beste hylly grounde is nat that: the whiche is hye vpright, and skragged: but that, the whiche is ful of wodde, herbes, and grasse.

1641 J. Milton Reason Church-govt. Concl. 62 The Universities..fed with nothing..but the scragged and thorny lectures of monkish and miserable sophistry.

1693 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. viii. 34 Is there then any physical deformity in the Fabric of a Human Body; because our Imagination can strip it of its Muscles and Skin, and shew us the scragged and knotty Backbone..?

1726 P. Dudley in Philos. Trans. 1725 (Royal Soc.) 33 258 The Scrag Whale is near a-kin to the Fin-back, but, instead of a Fin upon his Back, the Ridge of the After-part of his Back is scragged with half a Dozen Knobs or Nuckles.

a1591 H. Smith Serm. (1592) 1030 Many of vs..after twenty or thirty yeares feeding, are as skregged and leane as we were before.

1594 L. Twyne tr. Patterne Painefull Aduentures viii. sig. F Her bodie of comely stature,..not scregged with leanenesse, nor vndecently corpulent.

1684 tr. T. Bonet Guide Pract. Physician iii. 100 That Noble Person..scragged, as it seems, of a cold and dry temper..was frequently taken with the Colick.

1702 J. Vanbrugh False Friend 1 The Handsome, she's all Divinity..; The scragged lean pale Face, has a shape for Destruction.

1800 E. Hervey Mourtray Family II. 45 That man with the scragged neck.