Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The back of the neck; the nape.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as shruff.
  • In golf, to raze the grass slightly in striking.
  • noun The nape of the neck; the nape; technically, the nucha or cervix.
  • noun Same as scurf.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The nape of the neck; the loose outside skin, as of the back of the neck.
  • noun obsolete Scurf.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Someone with an untidy appearance
  • noun obsolete crust
  • noun The loose skin at the back of the neck of some animals.
  • noun rare The back of the neck, nape; also scruff of the neck.
  • verb To lift or carry by the scruff.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the back side of the neck

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of dialectal scuft, scuff.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word scruff.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.