Definition of "tattered" []

• Torn into shreds; ragged. (adjective)
• Having ragged clothes; dressed in tatters. (adjective)
• Shabby or dilapidated. (adjective)
• Disordered or disrupted. (adjective)

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.

• "He cited the recent example of a Columbia Heights Station escalator that bore what he described as a tattered banner referring to repair dates in 2009."
• "And they denounce what they called the tattered shroud of mandatory celibacy."
• "We could wind up with a country where nothing is manufactured but guns, and we'll be standing around in tattered loincloths, freezing and unshod next to our rusting out-of-gas SUV's clutching our empty black rifles."