Tattered

a., ppl. a. Forms: α. 4 tatered, tatrid, tatird, 5 tatyrd, tatterid, 5–7 tatterd, 6– tattered, -r’d. β. See TOTTERED. [app. orig. f. TATTER sb.¹ + -ED²: cf. RAGGED a.; subseq. treated as pa. pple. implying a vb.: see TATTER v.¹]

  † 1.  Having ‘tatters,’ jags, or long pointed projections; denticulated, jagged; slashed or laciniated, as a garment. Obs.

c. 1394.  P. Pl. Crede, 753. His syre a soutere…, His teeþ wiþ toylinge of leþer tatered as a sawe.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, V. iv. 165. His [a dragon’s] taylle whiche is al to tatterd sygnefyeth the noble knyghtes of the round table.

1501.  Douglas, Pal. Hon., I. xxv. Dragouns,… With mouthis gapand, forkit taillis tatterit.

  2.  Torn or rent so as to hang in tatters; ragged. (See also TOTTERED ppl. a. 1.).

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., V. xii. 28. Their garments yet, Being all rag’d and tatter’d.

1600.  Holland, Livy, II. xxiii. 58. His apparrell was all to tattered, foule and loathsome.

1709.  Addison, Tatler, No. 100, ¶ 3. Crowds of People in tattered Garments.

1791.  Cowper, Odyss., IX. 80. Our tatter’d sail-cloth crackled in the wind.

1905.  R. Garnett, Shaks., 26. The last year’s tattered foliage That long ago has rustled to the earth.

  3.  transf. † a. Clad in jagged or slashed garments (obs.). b. Having tattered or ragged garments.

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1537. Som has þair clethyng hyngand als stoles Som gas tatird als tatird foles.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 148. In here gaye pellure & precious cloþis & wast festis & tatrid squeyeres & oþere meyne.

1596.  [see TOTTERED ppl. a. 1].

1623.  Massinger, Dk. Milan, III. i. To see the tattered’st rascals of my troop Drag them out of their closets.

a. 1750[?].  Nursery Rhyme, House that Jack Built, viii. This is the man all tattered and torn.

1883.  Century Mag., July, 419/2. An aged and tattered negro was the mule’s ring-master.

  † 4.  Having unkempt disheveled hair, of irregular length; shaggy. Cf. TATTY a. Obs.

1340.  [see 3].

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., i. 137. Now ar we waxen blak as any coylle, And vgly, tatyrd as a foylle.

1709.  Steele & Swift, Tatler, No. 70, ¶ 10. A … French Mongrel, that was … in a tatter’d Condition, but has now got new Hair.

  † 5.  Of a ship, building, or other solid structure: Dilapidated, battered, shattered. Obs. (See also TOTTERED ppl. a. 2.)

1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. (Grosart), V. 277. Nothing of that Castle saue tattered ragged walles nowe remaines.

1666.  Dryden, Ann. Mirab., cxxxiv. [He] warns his tattered fleet to follow home.

1700.  S. L., trans. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 30. To mend our tattered ships.

1797–8.  Jane Austen, Sense & Sens., xviii. I do not like ruined, tattered cottages.

  † b.  Of troops: Ronted and broken up, shattered, disintegrated. Obs.

1675.  Otway, Alcibiades, III. i. Their tatter’d troops are scatter’d o’er the plain.

1728.  Morgan, Algiers, I. iii. 40. Where he continued till he had recruited his tattered army.

  Hence Tatteredly adv.

1673.  E. Brown, Trav. Germ., etc. (1677), 126. The Windows of Palaces and fair Houses being of Glass, looked not so tatterdly as the ragged Paper Windows of Florence.