tattered
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English tatered, tatird, from Old Norse. Originally, it was derived from the noun, but it was later it reanalysed as a past participle (tatter + -ed), whereafter the verb came into being. Compare tatter.
Adjective
tattered (not comparable)
- rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged
- 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:
- The chattering, irrational brute of the subconscious clothes itself in the tattered garments of rationality and idealism.
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- dressed in tatters or rags; ragged
- 1895 October 1, Stephen Crane, chapter 10, in The Red Badge of Courage, 1st US edition, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 101:
- The tattered man waved his hand.
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- (obsolete) dilapidated; showing gaps or breaks; jagged; broken
Related terms
Translations
ragged and torn
dressed in tatters or rags
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References
- tattered in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- “tattered”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
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