tatterdemalion
\tat-er-di-MEYL-yuhn, -MAL-\
adjective
1. ragged; unkempt or dilapidated.
noun
1. a person in tattered clothing; a shabby person.
Quotes
He seemed to fit the tatterdemalion apartment perfectly: his dark clothes threadbare, his beard unkempt, his shoes cracked, with his right foot resting on the floor at an odd angle to the other.
-- Chaim Potok, Old Men at Midnight, 2001
Origin
Tatterdemalion entered English in the early 1600s. This term was first written tatter-de-mallian and rhymed with battalion.
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