tattered

• tottered

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtætəd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtætɚd/

• Audio (US):

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tattered (not comparable)

1. Rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged.

   Synonyms: raggedy, ragtag, tatterdemalion

   • 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.

   Synonyms: raggy; see also Thesaurus:unkempt

   • 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.

3. (obsolete) Dilapidated; showing gaps or breaks; jagged; broken.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deteriorated, Thesaurus:ramshackle

• tatty
• tatterdemalion

tattered

1. simple past and past participle of tatter

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “tattered”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “tattered”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

• tetrated