tatty

¹ American  

[tat-ee] / ˈtæt i /

Or tattie

noun

plural

tatties

1. (in India) a screen, usually made of coarse, fragrant fibers, placed over a window or door and kept moistened with water in order to cool and deodorize the room.

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tatty ² American  

[tat-ee] / ˈtæt i /

adjective

tattier, tattiest

1. cheap or tawdry; vulgar.

   a tatty production of a Shakespearean play.

2. shabby or ill-kempt; ragged; untidy.

   an old house with dirty windows and tatty curtains.

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tatty British  

/ ˈtætɪ /

adjective

1. worn out, shabby, tawdry, or unkempt

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Other Word Forms

• tattily adverb
• tattiness noun

Etymology

Origin of tatty¹

First recorded in 1785–95, tatty is from the Hindi word ṭaṭṭī

Origin of tatty¹

1505–15; tat rag (probably back formation from tatter ¹ ) + -y ¹

Example Sentences

As soon as Williams ascends to a new height of fame, it begins to look tatty.

From Los Angeles Times

Perhaps irony, like water for the swimming pool, is a resource that dries up seasonally in these parts, leaving only a dust bowl of surly resentment and some tatty deckchairs behind.

From Los Angeles Times

Look closely, and the beggar’s left hand has disappeared, tucked inside the placket of his tatty jacket.

From Los Angeles Times

The gloomy, dark room had bare belongings: a rope and wood cot, a steel vessel to store grains, a clay stove sunk in the ground and a tatty clothes line.

From BBC

If, as he spends the book insisting, all he and Meghan ever wanted was domestic simplicity — tatty sofas, Ikea lamps — then why, upon leaving the family, did they buy a $15 million house?

From Washington Post