tattered
adjUK /ˈtætəd/ · US /ˈtætɚd/
Etymology From Middle English tatered, tatird, from Old Norse tǫturr. Originally, it was derived from the noun, but it was later reanalysed as a past participle (tatter + -ed), whereafter the verb came into being. Compare tatter.
1
Rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged.
- The chattering, irrational brute of the subconscious clothes itself in the tattered garments of rationality and idealism.1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:
2
Dressed in tatters or rags; ragged.
- This is the Prieſt all ſhaven and ſhorn, that married the man all tattered and torn[.]1784, The House that Jack Built, page 8:
- The tattered man waved his hand.1895 October, Stephen Crane, chapter X, in The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 101:
3
Obsolete Dilapidated; showing gaps or breaks; jagged; broken.
- Derived terms
- tatteredly, tatteredness, untattered
- Related terms
- tatty, tatterdemalion