Bedraggled

Bedraggled is an adjective that means dirty and disheveled. The root word of bedraggled is drag, which has an origin from Middle English. When we say someone is or looks bedraggled, we mean they seem as though they’ve been dragged around and roughed up. For example: It was embarrassing to see my kids show up at their graduation right after baseball practice, looking like they’d been dragged there from the back of a truck. They looked so bedraggled I thought they might get their diplomas withheld.