Tatty

//ˈtæti// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A potato. Geordie, Northern-England, Scotland

    "I'm buying fucking tatties."

  2. 2
    A woven mat or screen hung at a door or window and kept wet to moisten and cool the air as it enters. India

    "[…] tatties are placed in front of the verandahs to keep out the rains during the monsoon; […]"

  3. 3
    A kind of reggae dance move.
  4. 4
    Alternative form of tat (“tattoo”). alt-of, alternative, uncommon
Adjective
  1. 1
    Tattered; dilapidated, distressed, worn-out, torn.

    "The tramp wore a tatty old overcoat."

Adjective
  1. 1
    tastelessly showy wordnet
  2. 2
    showing signs of wear and tear wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
basebrassycheapcheesycommoncrappy

Example

More examples

"The backpack looks a bit tatty now, but is still fully functional."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Clipping of potato.

Etymology 2

From tatter + -y.

Etymology 3

From Hindi [Term?].

Related phrases

tatty byeworn out

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.