Literary notes about bedraggled (AI summary)
Writers use "bedraggled" to evoke a vivid sense of disarray and weariness in both people and things, transforming a mere physical state into a powerful symbol of accumulated hardship. It often appears when describing figures battered by nature or conflict, as seen when soldiers are portrayed as wet, cold, and exhausted [1], or when a traveler’s appearance marks the toll of a long, arduous journey [2]. The term not only captures mud-splattered clothing and tousled hair but also deepens our understanding of characters' emotional and physical vulnerability, suggesting a life of struggle or defeat—whether it be a disheveled warrior returning from battle [3] or a group of tramps rendered hopeless by circumstance [4]. Even in portrayals of inanimate subjects, like a forlorn kitten in the fog [5], "bedraggled" enriches the narrative by drawing attention to the cumulative effects of neglect, time, and the elements on both body and spirit.
- Wet, cold, weary, and without food for twenty-six hours, the bedraggled Tommies stood yelling and waving, amid the litter of dead and of dying.
— from The Great Boer War by Arthur Conan Doyle - In spite of our brushing and shaving we were still bedraggled and rumpled and unpresentable.
— from The Black Ghost of the Highway by Gertrude Linnell - Bedraggled and mud splashed, he looked every inch a returning warrior from unknown wars.
— from The Adventure Girls in the Air by Clair Blank - No three tramps that one could have met in a Surrey lane could have looked more hopeless and bedraggled.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle - It was a bedraggled kitten that he had discovered wandering about in the fog and mewing piteously.
— from The Further Adventures of O'Neill in Holland by J. Irwin (John Irwin) Brown
