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Glite Dictionary
🩹 A torn piece 🩹 To become torn
to tatter

to tatter

1 5.3
To get torn and ragged from age or use
  • verb
  • /ˈtætər/
  • Archaic
: hacerse harapos
  • We trudged through the mud and shivered with cold in our tattered tents, exposed to every wind.
  • tattered and worn

Examples

  • After a while, Dusty came back with a thin envelope, tattered and stained.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Maybe he's tattered from years of gathering dust.

    Benny Loves You (2019)

  • It's a bit tattered.

    Lured (2019)

  • The dead shambled off, the tattered remnants of their clothing fluttering behind them.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Vivian's clothes, as tattered as they are, are neatly folded and piled on a chair.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • After years of wear, his favorite jacket had become tattered and frayed at the edges.

  • The old book lay on the table, its pages tattered and yellowed with age.

  • Her once vibrant banner was now tattered, barely holding onto its original color.

Synonyms

to wear out
vsto tatter
47 2.3

To get damaged or stop working after long use

becomes torn or ragged in appearance rather than fully unusable

Antonyms

to maintain
103 3.1

Keep something in good condition by repairing and protecting it

to renew
97 3.7

Start again after a pause, often a relationship or activity

How Torn

to fall apart
243 2.8
to tatter
  • Archaic
1 5.3
to fray
18 4.2
to wear
159 3.3

Surface Forms

tatter infinitive
tattered past
tattered past participle
tattering present participle
tatters third person singular

Etymology

Tatter comes from the same old idea of torn cloth, so a helpful way to remember it is to imagine a flag or shirt slowly turning into 'rags' in the wind. That's why to tatter means to become torn or worn out.