draggle-tailed
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of draggle-tailed
First recorded in 1645–55; draggle-tail + -ed 3
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It was repeated in the draggle-tailed flight of the crippled Strasbourg to Toulon, in the smashed hulks of four other men-of-war, in the sullen disarmament of the French squadron under British guns in Alexandria's harbor.
From Time Magazine Archive
They were all dirty and in plain shorts or draggle-tailed knickers or old everyday dresses.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
They have the diseased conscience of modern art, and they think that nothing can be true which is not draggle-tailed and nothing can be real which is not petty and unstimulating.
From Suspended Judgments Essays on Books and Sensations by Powys, John Cowper
The dainty malice, the grave insolence, the superb disdain, the assurance and yet the solicitude of fashion wedded to beauty, youth to breeding, was a sufficient masque to the draggle-tailed little creature of the afternoon.
From The Wayfarers by Snaith, J. C.
Women seemed to be going in and coming out of such places in draggle-tailed processions in those wicked days; but now I only once saw women drinking in a public house.
From London Films by Howells, William Dean
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
