tattered

English

Alternative forms

• tottered

Etymology

From Middle English tatered, tatird, from tatter +‎ -ed. Originally it was derived from the noun, but later it was treated as a past participle implying a verb. Compare tatter.

Adjective

tattered (not comparable)

1. 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.

2. dressed in tatters or rags; ragged
3. (obsolete) dilapidated; showing gaps or breaks; jagged; broken

Translations

ragged and torn

• Kurdish:

  Sorani: شڕوشاڵ (ku) (shiRoshAL)

• Russian: драный (ru) (drányj), рваный (ru) (rványj), оборванный (ru) (obórvannyj)

• Serbo-Croatian: poderan (sh), razderan (sh), prnjav (sh), dronjav (sh)
• Spanish: andrajoso (es) m

dressed in tatters or rags

• Serbo-Croatian: prnjav (sh), dronjav (sh)

Verb

tattered

1. simple past tense and past participle of tatter

References

• tattered in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• “tattered” in OED Online, Oxford University Press, 1989.