bedraggle, v.
(bɪˈdræg(ə)l)
[f. be- + draggle.]
a. To wet (dress, skirts, or the like) so that they drag, or hang limp and clinging with moisture. b. ‘To soil clothes by suffering them, in walking, to reach the dirt.’ Johnson. (Rare in the active till modern times.)
| 1727 Swift Past. Dial. Wks. 1755 IV. i. 78 Poor Patty Blount, no more be seen Bedraggled in my walks so green. 1857 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh 9 The very sky Bedraggled with the desolating salt. 1871 Daily News 24 Aug., The rain has fallen..bedraggling the flags and banners. |
Hence, bedraggled ppl. a., bedragglement.
| 1727 [see prec.] 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 36 Such pale, careworn faces, such bedraggled dresses. 1852 Hawthorne Tanglew. T. 105 All in a terribly bedraggled condition. 1882 Standard 7 June 3/1 Elaborate costumes..much the worse, not for wear, but for..bedragglement. |