Tattered

Alternative forms

• tottered

Origin

From Middle English tatered, tatird, from Old Norse. Originally, it was derived from the noun, but it was later it reanalysed as a past participle, (tatter + -ed), whereafter the verb came into being. Compare tatter.

Full definition of tattered

Adjective

1. rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged
• 1919, Boris Sidis, :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

Verb

1. tattered

   (past of tatter)