tradefallen

English

Etymology

From trade +‎ fallen.

Adjective

tradefallen (comparative more tradefallen, superlative most tradefallen)

1. (rare) out of work or business, unemployed
   • c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     […] diſcarded, vniuſt ſeruingmen, yonger ſonnes to yonger brothers, reuolted tapſters, and Oſtlers, tradefalne, the cankers of a calme world, and a long peace, ten times more diſhonourable ragged then an olde fazd ancient, […]

   • c. 1607–1610, published 1611, Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girl:

     In thee I defye all men, there worſt hates,
     And their beſt flatteries, all their golden witchcrafts,
     With which they intangle the poore ſpirits of fooles,
     Diſtreſſed needlewomen and trade-fallne wiues.
     Fiſh that muſt needs bite, or themſelues be bitten,
     Such hungry things as theſe may ſoone be tooke
     With a worme faſtned on a golden hooke.

   • 1919, William George Fitzgerald, “Ignatius Phayre”, in America’s Day: Studies in Light and Shade, page 55:

     It is depressing to watch the bitterness of the disinherited in these sorting-pens; the surliness of outcasts and tradefallen failures—yet no sooner do they step ashore at the Battery than they fill their lungs with American air, which has a marvellous effect.