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  1. tatterdemalion love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A person wearing ragged or tattered clothing; a ragamuffin.
  2. adj. Ragged; tattered.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A ragged fellow.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Tattered.
  2. n. A person with tattered clothing; a pauper.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A ragged fellow; a ragamuffin.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a dirty shabbily clothed urchin
  2. adj. worn to shreds; or wearing torn or ragged clothing
  3. adj. in deplorable condition

Etymologies

  1. The first part of the word is tatter; the origin of the second part is unclear. First attested circa 1608. (Wiktionary)
  2. Probably tattered + -demalion, of unknown meaning. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The exact origin of "tatterdemalion" is uncertain, but it's probably connected to either the noun "tatter" ( "a torn scrap or shred") or the adjective "tattered”

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

  • “I envisioned traps, snares, pits, poisons, even the construction of some kind of tatterdemalion designed to terrify beavers.”

    LJWorld.com stories: News

  • “Within half a dozen years of the first appearance of "tatterdemalion," it came to be used as an adjective to describe anything or anyone ragged or disreputable.”

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

  • “We do know that "tatterdemalion" has been used in print since the 1600s.”

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

  • “s, the male maid of the Grammer-Hodge m nage, who is madly funny and has the best legs in the show; and the eight-piece orchestra, which sounds just like the kind of tatterdemalion band you'd hear in a French strip joint.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Size Matters

  • “But its tatterdemalion presence relieved her, and her face jerked up scarlet.”

    CHAPTER 25

  • “And everyone's evaluations of me as a deLintian tatterdemalion impish fey girl, and the whole libido-faerie thing SJ and I were giggling about recently, and ...”

    Fortune

  • “But that a tatterdemalion out of the night should invade the sanctity of her kitchen-kingdom and delay dinner while she set a place for him in the warmest corner, was a matter of such moment that the Sunflower went to see.”

    Local Color

  • “Sprawled out on the hatch were five or six men, among them Larry, the tatterdemalion who had called him "old stiff" earlier in the afternoon.”

    CHAPTER V

  • “Mr. Davies disapproves of the fevered effusions in Robert J. Casey's "The Lost Kingdom of Burgundy," published in 1928, with passages such as: "The kingdom lives because its motley kings, tatterdemalion warriors, guitar playing swashbucklers and mace wielding choristers have refused to remain in their moldy tombs.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Sovereignty and the Pitiless Passage of Time

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Lists

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Comments

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  • bilby Uff, don't hold back, James. Sep 17, 2008

  • brtom "Florry Talbot, a blond feeble goosefat whore in a tatterdemalion gown of mildewed strawberry ..." Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Dec 31, 2007

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‘tatterdemalion’ has been looked up 3490 times, loved by 22 people, added to 125 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 17.