draggle-tail

English

Alternative forms

• draggletail

Etymology

From draggle (“to make wet and muddy by dragging along the ground”) +‎ tail. Implying that such a person's gown trailed in the mire or along the ground.

Noun

draggle-tail (plural draggle-tails)

1. (chiefly archaic) A slut or slattern; a slovenly woman.

   Synonym: drabble-tail

   • 1604, Robert Dallington, The View of Fraunce‎^[1], London: Symon Stafford:

     For yee shall not onely see the Damoiselles (Gentlewomen) and them of the better sort, but euery poore Chapperonnieze (draggletayle) euen to the Coblers daughter, that can Dance with good measure, & Arte, all your Quarantes, Leualties, Bransles, & other Dances whatsoeuer […]

   • 2010, Alexander Granach, Herbert Lewis, From the Shtetl to the Stage: The Odyssey of a Wandering Actor, page 133:

     It was a long canting monologue, which ended with, "And a lady is just what you are not — you don't even wear under-drawers, you draggle-tail!" Whereupon in her fury she lifted her skirts and showed me that she did wear underdrawers.

Related terms

• draggle-tailed

Adjective

draggle-tail

1. Dirty, untidy, ragtag.
   • 1903, W. G. Collingwood, “The Fésole Club Papers: Chapter X: Infinity”, in The Parents' Review, volume 14, number 10, page 781:

     You notice that across the lawn the coppice looks not so wind-beaten and draggletail as it did a while ago.

   • 1982, Joseph Sherman, “The little black ant and the little blue heron”, in Lords of shouting: Poems, page 70:

     —words spliced to form
     draggletail phrases
     met by brittle conjuctions–
     We two are poorly bound

   • 1982, Ruth Park, Playing Beatie Bow, page 68:

     Dirty, draggletail, it was nevertheless an important street […]

References

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