Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a wandering beggar who deliberately adopts ragged, filthy clothes in the hope of extracting more money from the kind-hearted; also as adj.

1608		Dekker Belman of London B4: Hee that was Rector Chori (the Captaine of the Tatterdemalions) spying one to march vnder his colours, that had neuer before serued in these lowsie warres, pawsed awhile.
1617		J. Taylor ‘Iacke a Lent’ in Works (1869) I 115: Vntill at last comes marching vp nother troope of Tatterdemallions.
c.1625		‘The Louse’s Peregrination’ in Wardroper (1969) 178: I clung me close to him and left my companions. / I scorned to converse more with tatterdemallions.
1637		T. Heywood Royal King and Loyal Subject II ii: 1 gent.: Mine host, what’s here? host: A tatterdemalian, that stays to sit at the Ordinary to-day.
1651		T. Randolph Hey for Honesty II iv: I will go marshal up my forlorn-hopes of tatterdemallions.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 38: Being now ale mode Taterdemallion [...] with green Walnuts they so discoloured my face, that every one that saw me, would have sworn I was the true Son of an Egyptian.
1677		Poor Robin’s Visions 73: I have carried a great many in my wherry, males and females, from the silken whore to the pitifull poor tatterdemalion [F&H].
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Tatterdemallion, a Ragged Rogue.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Tatter-de-mallion, a ragged, tatter’d Begger, . . .having better Cloths at Home.
1709		‘Phoebe Crackenthorpe’ Female Tatler (1992) (31) 74: The vocal part of it [a concert] by an Ethiopian ballad singer [...] and Seignior Tatterdemaliano, an Italian rag-merchant.
1717		Proc. Old Bailey 1 May 8/2: The Prisoner deny’d the Fact and brought a Tatterdemallion, who like Irish evidence, swore the prisoner was not the Woman came in with the Boy.
1722		‘Whipping-Tom’ Universal Poison, or the Dismal Effects of Tea II 10: For alas! what Trouble and Toil, will a Parcel of Tatterdemalions take to pull a Table from one Place to another?
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1748		Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 293: He was not gone a hundred yards, when my friend Oregan came up, in order to rescue me, with two Tatterdemalions whom he had engaged for that purpose, about the purlieus of St. Giles’s.
1751		W. Kenrick Falstaff’s Wedding (1766) I iv: Sir John made a mere tatterdemallion of me.
1764		K. O’Hara Midas III ii: Fob off this tatterdemallion.
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 106: Mrs. Bramble [...] said she had never seen such a filthy tatterdemalion, and bid him begone.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: tatterdemallion a ragged fellow whose clothes hang all in tatters.
1792		H.H. Brackenridge Modern Chivalry (1937) Pt II Bk I 15: Though the weaver was not the most elevated object of choice, yet he was still preferable to this tatter-demalion.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 137: I’ll pepper yonder tatterdemalions — Here’s one — Have at ye! ye rascalions!
1824		‘Geoffrey Crayon’ Tales of A Traveller (1850) 192: Old London seemed to [...] offer no encouragement to such a couple of tatterdemalions.
1837		T. Carlyle Diamond Necklace 35/1: I behold thee a bright-eyed little Tatterdemalion, begging and gathering sticks in the Bois de Boulogne.
1846		Cork Examiner 15 June 4/4: Heki, that blanket-clothed tatterdemallion, is raising a promising breeze in New Zealand.
1851		Freeman’s Jrnl (Dublin) 8 Mar. 3/5: Edward Ryan, a shock-headed tatterdemallion, proved that he saw the prisoner hiding the property.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America I 329: The bearded tatterdemalion of the Potomac.
1873		Royal Cornwall Gaz. 31 May 7/4: The escort of tatterdemallions grew inconveniently large, surging along Bethnal Green Road.
1883		Sweet & Knox On a Mexican Mustang, Through Texas 600: The tatterdemalions gathered around us in high glee.
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 12: He might have remained a tatterdemalion to this day.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 276: Now I had great joy in this tatterdemalion wastral.
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 163: He bore a startling resemblance to [...] a kind of degenerate, tatterdemalion caricature of Poe.
1975		K. Willey Ghosts of the Big Country xi: All the tatterdemalion folk heroes of a frontier which seemed very close to us.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1611		J. Cook Greenes Tu Quoque Scene xvi: Puh the Italian fashion? the tatterd-de-malian fashion hee meanes.
1869		J.R. Browne Adventures in Apache Country 390: A wretched tatterdemallion set they are — poor, thriftless, and dirty.

3. a rascal.

1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk I 10: There are a few Tatter-de-mallions, / That (with a Pox) would be Italians.
1677		Behn Rover III i: Morett. A no Purchase, no Pay Taterdemalion, and English Piccaroon.
1687		T. Brown Saints in Uproar in Works (1760) I 73: The soldiers call them vagrants [...] The women [...] exclaim against lobsters and tatterdemallions.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk IV 327: Not idling and doing nothing, like this tatterdemalion of a monk here, this Friar Jack.
1715		‘Nickydemus Ninnyhammer’ Homer in a nut-shell 31: [Y]ou lounzy [sic] Tatterdemallion ? Cod I’ll trounce ye.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 161: Ridiculous, wasn’t it, in a tatterdemallion.
1898		H. Macilwaine Dinkinbar 114: The graceless tatterdemalion sniggered, spat, and swore a blood-curdling oath.
1911		A. Bennett Card (1974) 201: it had not occured to him that an immense and serious effort for the general weal was going to be blocked by a gang of tatterdemalions.
1933		J. Conroy Disinherited 169: I had it in mind to chase the children away [...] They were forlorn tatterdemalions with stringy hair and spindly legs.
1987		J. Ciardi Good Words 278: Tatterdemalion, A ragamuffin.

4. used as a non-specific insult.

1699

A great & famous scoldling-match 3: I won’t give my A-s for a thousand such Tatterdemallions as you.