c1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 316 Wið scruf, & wið sceb.]

14.. in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 626 Glabra, scrofe or scalle.

1710 London Gaz. No. 4716/4 Stoln.., a black Gelding.., with a large Wart or Scruff over his near Eye.

1559 in J. Knox Hist. Reformation in Wks. (1846) I. 403 They spair not planelie to brek doun and convert the guid and stark money..into this thair corruptit skruiff and baggage of Hard-heidis and Non Suntis.

c1560 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) i. 65 Thai brocht þair bastardis, w^t þe skrufe thai skraip To blande þair blude w^t barrownis be ambitioun.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia Scruff, is a kinde of fuel, which poor people..gather up at ebbing water, in the bottom of the Thames about London, and consists of Coal, little sticks of Wood, Cockle-shells, and the like.

1768 Woman of Honor II. 103 The..dirty current..carrying away with it the little trifling straw, scruff, and bubbles on its surface.

1673 Cal. Treas. Bks. (1909) IV. 404 As to the importation of whale fins, commonly called scruffe, which you conceive ought to pay as whalebone, you are to state a case.

1836 W. Carleton Traits & Stories Irish Peasantry (new ed.) II. 342 Oh, you scruff of the earth!

1896 G. F. Northall Warwickshire Word-bk. 203 Scruff, a wastrel, raffish rogue.

1905 Eng. Dial. Dict. V. 290/1 The village is well enough but for the scruff that comes in.

1958 People 4 May 12/4 ‘A nice class of fellow, too,’ he said. ‘Not one of the scruff.’

1960 D. Storey This Sporting Life i. v. 116 Every scruff in town's crept in. I don't like it.

1968 J. Lock Lady Policeman iii. 22 The ‘scruff’ might merely be an arty or beat type being deliberately scruffy and the very young face might belong to a grown woman.

1973 ‘H. Carmichael’ Too Late for Tears x. 121 Nature gives some of us the wrong heredity... So you're a scruff and John Piper's a gentleman.

1977 Listener 20 Jan. 72/2 Writing books or theatre plays is the only proper pursuit for a literary lady or gent, and..people who write for the new forms are money-grubbing scruffs who have sold their souls to the ghastly mass media.

1707 Minutes Ayr Presbytery (MS.) He doth often change his text, and doth not raise many heads and doth not prosecute such as he names, but scruffs them.

1713 Humble Pleadings for Good Old-way 92 Many scandalous practises of Presbyterian ministers in some places, tho flagrant and notour, little heeded, and, when complained of, scruiffed over with private accomodations.

1720 E. Erskine Wks. (1871) I. 91 Many there are who scruff over the duty in a superficial manner.

1862 St. Andrews Gaz. 3 Oct. 3/3 The boy was sleeping on the cart and fell down, and..his head was a little ‘scruffed’ on the wheel.

1876 C. C. Robinson Gloss. Words Dial. Mid-Yorks. 118/2 One will be told to get a besom and scruff the snow off the doorstone.

1896 P. A. Graham Red Scaur 347 I felt it scruff his chafts.

1920 C. Sandburg Smoke & Steel 25 Wearing leather shoes scruffed with fire.

1857 H. B. Farnie Golfer's Man. (1947) 74 Scruff, slightly razing the grass in striking.

1926 Amer. Speech 1 633/1 Scruff, to graze the grass with the club in striking.

1970 Oxf. Compan. Art 1055/1 A scumble must..be applied irregularly—dragged or scruffed—in such a way that small areas of the under colour show through.