tattered
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
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.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈtætəd/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈtætɚd/
Audio (US) (file)
Adjective edit
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.
- Dressed in tatters or rags; ragged.
- 1784, The House that Jack Built, page 8:
- This is the Prieſt all ſhaven and ſhorn, that married the man all tattered and torn[.]
- 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:
- The tattered man waved his hand.
- (obsolete) Dilapidated; showing gaps or breaks; jagged; broken.
Related terms edit
Translations edit
ragged and torn
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dressed in tatters or rags
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Verb edit
tattered
- simple past and past participle of tatter
References edit
- “tattered”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “tattered”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1989.