Definition of "tatter" [tat•ter]

• A torn and hanging piece of cloth; a shred. (noun)
• Torn and ragged clothing; rags. (noun)
• To make or become ragged. (verb-transitive)
• One that makes tatting, especially as a livelihood. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "All things tatter and fade like a garment; You cast them off like a change of clothes."
• "Her cane, made from a tatter umbrella, rights her slender body as best it can, but still she stumbles on the uneven path."
• "Yeats had his own solution: "An aged man is but a paltry thing, /A tattered coat upon a stick, unless /Soul clap hands and sing, and louder sing / For every tatter in its mortal dress.""