scranny

scranny

English

Etymology

See scrannel.

Adjective

scranny (comparative scrannier, superlative scranniest)

1. (UK, Scotland, dialect) thin; lean; meagre; scrawny
   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

     Rat.
     I’ll slily seize and
     Let blood from her weasand,—
     Creeping through crevice, and chink, and cranny,
     With my snaky tail, and my sides so scranny.

   • 1901, New England Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly - Volume 24, page 177:

     Observe in the whole lot, from the magnificent lord of the herd down to the scranniest runt, the superlative of self-reliance, the air of puffy arrogance and solid disregard of public or private opinion such as few of us attain.

   • 1914, Oral Hygiene - Volume 4, page 11:

     “Well, in the first place," I explained the little lady, "they've got three of the scranniest kids, and the mother herself don't look very strong."

   • 2001, Margaret Mead, Geoffrey Gorer, John Rickman, Russian Culture, →ISBN, page 38:

     Among the affairs of men their voices, single or united, amounted to no more than a scranny interruption easily put aside;

   • 2007, David Nobbs, The Complete Pratt, →ISBN, page 31:

     'Look at him, said Ada, pursing her lips. 'Is he fighting material? If Hitler's crack Panzer divisions see a scranny feller like him coming towards them, will they panic?"

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for scranny in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)