Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a term of abuse .

1887		E. Fitzgerald Works 523: That – old Jemima of yours is a regular Drabble-tail.
1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 14: Aw go ’haid, drabble-tail. Ain’ nobody studyin’ yo’ family.

2. attrib. use of sense 1; also drabbled.

1837		T. Hood ‘Drinking Song’ Works (1862) IV 235: Thou dingy, dirty, drabbled, draggled jill!
1868		G.W. Harris ‘Chapter from his Autobigraphy’ Chattanooga Daily Amer. Union 31 Mar. in Inge (1967) 191: You dirty, drabble-tail, slop-eatin’, ole louse pasture.
1913		Good Housekeeping LVI 562: But de sisters dat has got on ole, drabble-tail frocks dat hikes up in front, an’ down in de back, goes santerin’ along.
1979		D. Riepe Owl Flies by Day 40: His disgust with such slatternly, drabble tail customs of India rose to the surface as he slapped twenty-rupees in the crack-salesman’s light-colored palm.