Hypertext Webster Gateway: "tatterdemalion"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Tatterdemalion \Tat`ter*de*mal"ion\, n. [Tatter + OF.
desmaillier to break the meshes of, to tear: cf. OF. maillon
long clothes, swadding clothes, F. maillot. See {Tatter}, and
{Mail} armor.]
A ragged fellow; a ragamuffin. --L'Estrange.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
tatterdemalion
adj 1: worn to shreds; or wearing torn or ragged clothing; "a man
in a tattered shirt"; "the tattered flag"; "tied up in
tattered brown paper"; "a tattered barefoot boy"; "a
tatterdemalion prince" [syn: {tattered}]
2: in deplorable condition; "a street of bedraggled tenements";
"a broken-down fence"; "a ramshackle old pier"; "a
tumble-down shack" [syn: {bedraggled}, {broken-down}, {dilapidated},
{ramshackle}, {tumble-down}, {unsound}]
n : a dirty shabbily clothed urchin [syn: {ragamuffin}]
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