How to Use scrawny in a Sentence

scrawny

adjective

• The only plants in their yard were a couple of scrawny bushes.
• Children kick balls around, and a few scrawny dogs loll in the shade.
  — Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2019
• The chickens prove tough and scrawny and rather gruesome to kill.
  — Kanishk Tharoor, The Atlantic, 10 June 2018
• At 16, Sam is tall for his age and his scrawny frame has about 50 pounds on me.
  — Sarah Evans, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020
• If the cart has no chance, the scrawny teenager driving has less.
  — Frank Fellone, Arkansas Online, 3 Apr. 2021
• The curtain clung to his scrawny legs, itty‑bitty, bulging chicken legs.
  — Jonas Eika, The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2021
• Christian Petrie, a scrawny Klansman in his 20s said to me.
  — Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 22 Feb. 2018
• On one of his first days, Clark ran into a scruffy, scrawny blonde dude with a patchy Fu Manchu.
  — Chris Ballard, SI.com, 2 May 2018
• Some shacks pushed scrawny birds, others served brawny brutes.
  — Aimee Levitt, Chicago Reader, 8 Feb. 2018
• And if that’s dancing with scrawny [sic] little f—, so be it.
  — Joelle Goldstein, PEOPLE.com, 11 July 2019
• This scrawny, 135-pound novice wanted to try a brutish contact sport?
  — Sam Cohn, Baltimore Sun, 12 Jan. 2024
• My dad ate one of those scrawny blue tomatoes, and then stopped moving.
  — Dennard Dayle, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2022
• Mann plays Matt, a shy and scrawny kid who wears a patch over an empty eye socket.
  — John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Aug. 2017
• The fighter, a scrawny guy whose swagger looks put-on, hides his face in a monkey mask.
  — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Mar. 2024
• At baseball practice, a scrawny kid with a vest and a gun stood sentinel.
  — Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2022
• Outweighed by more than 30 pounds, the scrawny, gritty Harrelson got the worst of it.
  — Staff and Wire Reports, The Mercury News, 12 Jan. 2024
• Simba had grown so scrawny that his rib cage was exposed.
  — Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 24 Apr. 2017
• Then a scrawny animal crawled out from under the West Side house into the yard.
  — Vincent T. Davis, ExpressNews.com, 21 Oct. 2019
• Panas then returned to the estate as a scrawny one-eyed chicken, bald and vicious.
  — Rachel Polonsky, The New York Review of Books, 11 May 2021
• Both too scrawny, too slow, too pretty, having too much fun.
  — Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 Feb. 2018
• Tailgating is no longer the home of cold, waxy pizza and scrawny wings swimming in cold grease.
  — The Editors, Field & Stream, 20 Nov. 2019
• As the movie explains to us, Brad used to be a little scrawny kid, but over the last five years turned into a big jock (and also a big jerk).
  — Rachel Paige, refinery29.com, 5 July 2019
• The twins grew and grew, turning from scrawny baby birds into soft little piglets.
  — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 10 Mar. 2021
• One of the migrants, a scrawny 21-year-old in a camouflage shirt, struggled to remove his black-cord choker, and the agent snipped it off.
  — New York Times, 7 Aug. 2021
• But that seemed a long shot for a scrawny youngster who grew up shining shoes in the Bauru railway station.
  — Frank Dell'apa, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Dec. 2022
• Who knew this scrawny blue-eyed kid with the messy blond hair would grow up to become an elite talent in his rookie NHL season?
  — Kyle Fredrickson, The Denver Post, 8 Dec. 2019
• The centerpiece of the room is a cat playing a piano, a rather impressive piece of theme park robotics in which the scrawny cat stalks the keys.
  — Todd Martens Game Critic, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2021
• Worried his scrawny frame would be a disadvantage in jail, the 25-year-old began hitting the gym.
  — Washington Post, 19 May 2021
• Some nights Zarmeena Sardar dreams that Lina, looking scrawny, her skin darkened, calls out to her pleading for help.
  — Zabihullah Ghazi, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Sep. 2022
• Two healthy but scrawny plants have produced one growing pepper.
  — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 25 June 2018

Last Updated: 17 Dec 2024