Difference between drawn and haggard [closed]
In the novel Rage of Angels by Sidney Sheldon, we read:
She watched Adam now as he sat at his desk looking drawn and haggard.
Dictionaries such as Oxford and Cambridge are showing the same or similar meanings for both words. Then why did Sidney Sheldon, one of the best selling writers, use them together?
I guess it might be to make the scene more effective, but is it so?
The definitions of drawn and haggard are indeed similar; haggard even appears in drawn's definition on wiktionary!
drawn (adj.)
- Appearing tired and unwell, as from stress; haggard
- Of a game: undecided; having no definite winner and loser
haggard (adj.)
- Looking exhausted, worried, or poor in condition
- Wild or untamed
Both mean tired-looking, but, in my mind, the connotations of their use differ in the reason why the person looks tired.
I read drawn as describing the physical manifestation of psychological tension. As a ductile metal may be drawn by force into wire, so may a person's psyche be drawn thin by anxiety.
Haggard, however, implies to me exposure to the elements, per the second definition given above. To be haggard is to be roughed-up by life, wizened by the passage of time, like a hag. I think that a person can appear haggard without an underlying psychological burden, albeit "worried" appears in the first definition.