tattered
UK/ˈtætəd//ˈtætɚd/
tattered adjective: rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged. Also the simple past and past participle of tatter.
Adjective
tattered (not comparable)
- Rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged.
- The chattering, irrational brute of the subconscious clothes itself in the tattered garments of rationality and idealism.1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress
- Synonyms:
- raggedy, ragtag, tatterdemalion
- Dressed in tatters or rags; ragged.
- This is the Prieſt all ſhaven and ſhorn, that married the man all tattered and torn[.]1784, The House that Jack Built, page 8
- The tattered man waved his hand.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
- Synonyms:
- raggy, bedraggled, blowsy, dishevelled, dowdy, dowdyish, down at heel, downgone, qualifier, draggle-tailed
- Dilapidated; showing gaps or breaks; jagged; broken.
- Synonyms:
- clapped out, damaged, defective, deteriorated, dilapidated, effete, faulty, munted, outworn, passé
Also used as
tattered is also the simple past and past participle of tatter.
tattered meaning in Hindi and Persian
tattered in Hindi
- ragged and torn
- जर्जर jarjar
tattered in Persian
- ragged and torn
- سخش saxš
Examples of tattered in a sentence
- He had beswathed his bleeding wound with a tattered piece of cloth.
- She wore a tattered jean jacket.
- And it was completely tattered, because she’d been crying so much.
Synonyms of tattered
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of tattered
| alternative form | tottered |
|---|
Origin of tattered
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.
Words formed from tattered
Questions about tattered
- What does tattered mean?
- Tattered means rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged.
- What is tattered in Hindi?
- Tattered in Hindi is जर्जर (jarjar). See Tattered meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tattered?
- Tattered is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce tattered?
- Tattered is pronounced /ˈtætəd/ (UK).
Words near tattered in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tattered (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-tattered.wav.
Cite this entry: “tattered.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tattered. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.