draggle-tailed
/ˈdɹæɡl̩ˌteɪld/
draggle-tailed adjective: slatternly, untidy, unkempt.
Adjective
draggle-tailed (comparative more draggle-tailed, superlative most draggle-tailed)
- Slatternly, untidy, unkempt.
- And yet by the way, as one sometime demanded of one of his complices, How it came to pass, that they, who take upon them by the Stars, to tel everie draggle-tail’d Girl that comes to them to enquire after a Silver Spoon lost, what was become of it, and which way it was gone; yet could not by their...1654, Thomas Gataker, A Discours Apologetical, London: Thomas Newberry, page 4
- Every thing of that sort appears to be at present no better than it is with us in a country-town: or rather it wants the simplicity and rustic innocence, and is more like the draggled-tailed finery of a lady’s waiting-maid.1830, William Hazlitt, Conversations of James Northcote, Esq., R.A., London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, “Conversation the Fourth,” p. 51
Examples of draggle-tailed in a sentence
- [A] cock and two or three draggle-tailed hens were composing themselves to roost on the front portion of the cart between the shafts.1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor; […], volume II (The London Street-folk. Book the Second.), London: [Griffin, Bohn...
- You sound almost like a Northerner even, not like the draggle-tailed women of those Delta peckerwoods.1942 May–June, William Faulkner, “Delta Autumn”, in Go Down, Moses, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 1942 (3rd printing), →OCLC...
- A year before my return Elwood had swapped his old truck for this draggle-tailed creature.2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 18, in Small Island, London: Review, page 201:
Forms of draggle-tailed
| comparative | more draggle-tailed |
|---|---|
| superlative | most draggle-tailed |
| alternative form | draggled-tailed |
| alternative form | draggletailed |
Origin of draggle-tailed
Taken from draggle (“net drawn along the bottom of the water for fishing”), this was originally applied to women whose dresses dragged along the ground behind them.
Questions about draggle-tailed
- What does draggle-tailed mean?
- Draggle-tailed means slatternly, untidy, unkempt.
- How do you use draggle-tailed in a sentence?
- [A] cock and two or three draggle-tailed hens were composing themselves to roost on the front portion of the cart between the shafts.
- What part of speech is draggle-tailed?
- Draggle-tailed is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce draggle-tailed?
- Draggle-tailed is pronounced /ˈdɹæɡl̩ˌteɪld/.
Words near draggle-tailed in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: draggle-tailed (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-draggle-tailed.wav.
Cite this entry: “draggle-tailed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/draggle-tailed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.