Haggard

/ˈhæɡ.əd/ · adjective

Meaning

Looking exhausted, worried, or poor in condition.

Definitions by Sense

1. Looking exhausted, worried, or poor in condition
2. (of an animal) Wild or untamed
3. (falconry) A hunting bird captured as an adult.
4. (falconry) A young or untrained hawk or falcon.
5. (obsolete) A fierce, intractable creature.
6. (obsolete) A hag.
7. (dialect, Isle of Man, Ireland, Scotland) A stackyard, an enclosure on a farm for stacking grain, hay, etc.

Example Sentences

Pale and haggard faces.

A gradual descent into a haggard and feeble state.

The years of hardship made her look somewhat haggard.

Staring his eyes, and haggard was his look.

Then there was a pale, care-wrinkled woman, not old, but haggard, and already with streaks of gray among her hair, like silver ribbons; one of those women, naturally delicate, whom you at once recognize as worn to death by a brute—probably, a drunken brute—of a husband, and at least nine children.

I looked at the morning / After being up all night / I looked at my haggard face in the bathroom light / I looked out the window / And I saw that ragged soul take flight

By the end of two weeks there isn't a county in England where he hasn't pledged his holiness six different ways — which is not to deny that intermittently he has visions of himself as a haggard apostle of the life renounced, converting beautiful women and millionaires to Christian poverty.

a haggard or refractory hawk

Synonyms for haggard

Antonyms for haggard

Related Words

Word Forms

• more haggard
• most haggard
• haggards

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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