Etymology From draggle (“to make wet and muddy by dragging along the ground”) + tail. Implying that such a person's gown trailed in the mire or along the ground.
For yee shall not onely see the Damoiselles (Gentlewomen) and them of the better sort, but euery poore Chapperonnieze (draggletayle) euen to the Coblers daughter, that can Dance with good measure, & Arte, all your Quarantes, Leualties, Bransles, & other Dances whatsoeuer […]1604, Robert Dallington, The View of Fraunce, London: Symon Stafford:
It was a long canting monologue, which ended with, "And a lady is just what you are not — you don't even wear under-drawers, you draggle-tail!" Whereupon in her fury she lifted her skirts and showed me that she did wear underdrawers.2010, Alexander Granach, Herbert Lewis, From the Shtetl to the Stage: The Odyssey of a Wandering Actor, page 133:
Etymology From draggle (“to make wet and muddy by dragging along the ground”) + tail. Implying that such a person's gown trailed in the mire or along the ground.
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Dirty, untidy, ragtag.
You notice that across the lawn the coppice looks not so wind-beaten and draggletail as it did a while ago.1903, W. G. Collingwood, “The Fésole Club Papers: Chapter X: Infinity”, in The Parents' Review, volume 14, number 10, page 781:
—words spliced to form draggletail phrases met by brittle conjunctions– We two are poorly bound1982, Joseph Sherman, “The little black ant and the little blue heron”, in Lords of shouting: Poems, page 70:
1 more example
Dirty, draggletail, it was nevertheless an important street […]1982, Ruth Park, Playing Beatie Bow, page 68: