Draggle-tailed
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Slatternly, untidy, unkempt.
"And yet by the way, as one sometime demanded of one of his complices, How it came to pass, that they, who take upon them by the Stars, to tel everie draggle-tail’d Girl that comes to them to enquire after a Silver Spoon lost, what was become of it, and which way it was gone; yet could not by their star-skil foresee and foretel the Scotch Kings defeat at Worcester […]"
Example
More examples"And yet by the way, as one sometime demanded of one of his complices, How it came to pass, that they, who take upon them by the Stars, to tel everie draggle-tail’d Girl that comes to them to enquire after a Silver Spoon lost, what was become of it, and which way it was gone; yet could not by their star-skil foresee and foretel the Scotch Kings defeat at Worcester […]"
Etymology
Taken from draggle (“net drawn along the bottom of the water for fishing”), this was originally applied to women whose dresses dragged along the ground behind them.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.