draggle-tail

American  

[drag-uhl-teyl] / ˈdræg əlˌteɪl /

noun

1. slut; slattern.

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Etymology

Origin of draggle-tail

First recorded in 1590–1600; draggle + tail ¹

Example Sentences

She hasn't a penny, and goes about tattered, a draggle-tail, and sells her birthright for a handful of cold potatoes.

From Stories and Pictures by Peretz, Isaac Loeb

But a draggle-tail, dirty-foot slattern Would dub me ill-favoured and sallow.

From The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald by Collingwood, W. G. (William Gershom)

It was her pet hobby to take some neglected little draggle-tail from the workhouse and to turn her into an efficient maid-of-all-work.

From Recollections With Photogravure Portrait of the Author and a number of Original Letters, of which one by George Meredith and another by Robert Louis Stevenson are reproduced in facsimile by Murray, David Christie

"I thought fust it was you when I heard that draggle-tail dog of yours barkin', but it was only Miss Jane and Bart Holt."

From Tides of Barnegat by Smith, Francis Hopkinson

The long and short of it all was that I had to resume the clothes I had left behind me, and restore to Jutka the draggle-tail rags which she had charged me with spoiling.

From Eyes Like the Sea by Jókai, Mór