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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Appearing worn and exhausted; gaunt.
  2. adj. Wild or distraught in appearance.
  3. adj. Wild and intractable. Used of a hawk in falconry.
  4. n. An adult hawk captured for training.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Wild; intractable: said of a hawk or falcon.
  2. Hence Untamed; lawless; wanton; profligate.
  3. n. A hawk; specifically, in falconry, a wild hawk caught when in its adult plumage.
  4. n. A hag; an ugly old woman; also, a wanton.
  5. Wild-looking, as from prolonged suffering, terror, or want; careworn; gaunt; wildly staring.
  6. Desperately wild; reckless: with reference to an act.
  7. Synonyms Grim, Grisly, etc. (see ghastly); lean, worn, wasted (especially in countenance).
  8. n. A stack-yard.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Looking exhausted and unwell, in poor condition
  2. adj. Wild or untamed
  3. n. A stackyard, an enclosure on a farm for stacking grain, hay, etc.
  4. n. A hunting bird captured as an adult.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed.
  2. adj. Having the expression of one wasted by want or suffering; hollow-eyed; having the features distorted or wasted by pain; wild and wasted, or anxious in appearance.
  3. n. A young or untrained hawk or falcon.
  4. n. A fierce, intractable creature.
  5. n. A hag.
  6. n. A stackyard.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
  2. adj. very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold
  3. n. British writer noted for romantic adventure novels (1856-1925)

Etymologies

  1. French hagard, wild, from Old French, wild hawk, raptor, perhaps of Germanic origin.

Examples

  • “III. iii.260 (442,7) If I do prore her haggard] A _haggard_ hark, is a”

    Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies

  • “Here and there a desperate thief, with hungry eyes and thin haggard face, was climbing down through the gap, in rash hope of possible treasure.”

    Love and Life Behind the Purdah

  • “ElBruce, it seems litigant retard thinks calling attention to Haggard still being gay is fight’n words. sounds like she has a personal stake in haggard’s ‘treatment’. do we have another ‘ex-gay’ con artist like buttblight? lol!”

    Think Progress » CPAC Conference Dissolves Into Right-Wing Civil War Over Gay Rights

  • “She hadn't told Rhyme that she, like him, would never name a hunting bird, that she'd called the haggard merely "the falcon.”

    The Coffin Dancer

  • “An eyas was a hawk taken from its nest while still without feathers, but the haggard was a bird caught after it had gained adult plumage in the wild.”

    From This Beloved Hour

  • “Phoenix, for so Peter had dubbed the haggard in memory of his and Jenny's first discussion of the bennu hieroglyph in the Egyptian Museum, had known the ecstasy of freedom and had a look about her that definitely said she preferred the wild to captivity.”

    From This Beloved Hour

  • “His eyes were bloodshot, and his face, all begrimed with smoke and gunpowder, wore an expression haggard, gaunt, and very weary.”

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 4, August, 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy

  • “The sight of these symbols of foreign oppression recalled the haggard faces and toil-bent frames I had seen on my journey to Milan.”

    Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge

  • “As the comments bandied about by pundits and columnists that Sen. Clinton was a "ball buster" (MSNBC Host Tucker Carlson), "haggard" (syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin on Fox News), and "big-bummed" (Kurt Anderson in New York Magazine) became a faint echo in the campaigning distance, would the second woman to run on a major-party ticket in the 2008 election cycle endure similar treatment?”

    The Wall Street Journal: 'Sexism's Coming Out Party'

  • “I mean when he was very gray and kind of haggard looking.”

    CNN Transcript Sep 7, 2007

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  • ofravens Haggard through the hot white noon
    from "Pursuit," by Sylvia Plath Apr 8, 2008

‘haggard’ has been looked up 1965 times, added to 47 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 13.