tatterdemalion
Americannoun
adjective
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Etymology
Origin of tatterdemalion
1600–10; first written tatter-de-mallian and rhymed with Italian; tatter 1; -de-mallian < ?
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.
Off it flaps on tatterdemalion wings to wreak much CG-enabled property damage on downtown Philadelphia, where the picture is set.
From Seattle Times
They perched on fence posts, on the roofs of vans, in tatterdemalion back yards.
From Washington Post
He, like Putin, is losing leverage and his tatterdemalion posturing looks daily more threadbare.
From Forbes
Who, indeed, could not be spellbound, beholding that countless changing tatterdemalion caravan go by?
From Project Gutenberg
A French general of division does not give audience to every tatterdemalion who picks up a prisoner on the high road.”
From Project Gutenberg
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.