daggle-tailed

English

Adjective

daggle-tailed (comparative more daggle-tailed, superlative most daggle-tailed)

1. (obsolete) Having the lower ends of clothes dirty due to them trailing in mud or other filth.

   Synonym: draggle-tailed

2. (obsolete) Of low class or ill repute
   • 1708, Jonathan Swift, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity:

     And first, I am very sensible how much the gentlemen of wit and pleasure are apt to murmur, and be choked at the sight of so many daggle-tailed parsons that happen to fall in their way, and offend their eyes

   • 1823 December 23 (indicated as 1824), [Walter Scott], St Ronan’s Well. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

     Hal - this awkward Scotch laird, that has scarce tact enough to make love to a ewe-milker, or, at best, to some daggle-tailed soubrette

References

• “daggle-tailed”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.