Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also draggled) promiscuous (usu. of women but referring to men in cit. 1696), pertaining to prostitution; also a general term of abuse.

1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes I vii 51: It would have been queen of sluts then, for according to the author’s account, she was a draggle-tailed lady.
1686		Dorset ‘A Faithful Catalogue of our most Eminent Ninnies’ Works of Rochester, Roscommon, Dorset (1720) 31: How haughtily he cries, Page, fetch a Whore [...] Bring in that black-ey’d Wench; Woman, come near; / Rot you, you draggled Bitch, What is’t you fear?
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 627: Your little draggle-tailed father confessors.
1696		G. Granville She-Gallants V i: Nor when the draggle tail Mask, sends for you out from Chauvisses, swear that ’tis a great Lady that shall be nameless, that has stolen from her Lord.
1699		A great & famous scoldling-match 7: D—n you all for a Company of Dragletail’d Sluts.
1715		S. Centlivre Gotham Election I i: I’ll murder you, you dirty, draggle-tail’d Slut.
1722		Proceedings Old Bailey 10 Oct. 4/2: The deceased followed her Husband, called the prisoner poor beggarly Bitch, nasty draggle tail’d toad, ugly Puss, and stinking Punk, bid her go wash her Smock, and continued such language till she fell down dead by her Husband.
1750		‘The Folly of England’ Ally Croaker’s Garland 6: Each Draggel-tail Drab that will cuddle and kiss.
1761		Nancy Dawson’s Jests 36: No longer shall trudge, now each draggle tail trull, / Thro hail, rain or snow, to pick up a cull.
1765		Foote The Commissary 19: That eternal trotter after all the little draggle-tail’d girls of town.
1796		Hants. Chron. 16 June 3/3: No ladies of the name of Carrotty Bess, Bumping Moll, Goggle-eyed Nan, or Draggle-tail Jenny were of the party.
1824		Dorset County Chron. 29 Jan. 2/2: Forbye men that had been in foreign parts [...] and may be two or three draggletail misses.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 25 Dec. 382/1: [She] has descended front all the pride of courtezanship—satin garments, and nodding plumes, and sparkling jewels, and costly wines—to rags, dirt, and drunkenness among the draggle-tailed drabs of Drury.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 348: The limited space before the bar was occupied by draggletail women, and shambling, slouching, fishy-eyed men.
1925		C. Hume Cruel Fellowship 276: The little draggle-tailed slut was indispensable to his happiness.

2. impoverished; thus unkempt, messy.

1639		J. Taylor Juniper Lecture 36: Every durty draggletail Ioane, that came with nothing to their husbands but the cloathes on their backes.
1675		Character of a Town-Gallant in C. Hindley Old Bk Collector’s Misc. 5: He says [...] Law a thing fit only for Draggle-tailed Gown-men, that have no way of raising a Fortune.
1683		Whores Rhetorick 61: I am not desirous to hear any more of the Lawyers; those dragled-tail’d fellows (as I heard my Father say).
1688		‘Advice to the Maidens of London’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) II 935: Every Dragel-Tayled Country Girl, / when once she comes up to the City.
1699		N. Ward London Spy XIV 338: We were inform’d by a little Draggle-Tail Flat-Cap, it was Rag-Fair.
1817		J.T. Smith Vagabondiana 44: The occupation of these draggle-tail wretches commences on the banks of the Thames at low water.
1824		W. Scott St Ronan’s Well (1833) 30: Three draggle-tailed misses, that wear my Leddy Penelope’s follies when she has dune wi’ them.
1824		‘Geoffrey Crayon’ Tales of A Traveller (1850) 192: The very dogs would have chased such a draggle-tailed beauty.
1838		Crim. Con. Gaz. 25 Aug. 2/1: She was now a person of distinction and above her former draggle-tailed connections.
1847		R.F. Walond Paddiana II 94: That’s a fine draggle-tailed one; better for her to mend the heel of her stocking before she hold up her dress.
1867		J. Greenwood Unsentimental Journeys 97: You may make out a draggle-tail, drunken drab, lying wait of evenings within a score yards of the threshold of your innocent house. [Ibid.] 128: Slovenly-bosomed, draggle-tailed women of sixteen.
1876		J. Greenwood Low-Life Deeps 55: He pensively regarded her draggle-tailed ladyship on the tub.
1897		Pall Mall Gaz. 20 Nov. 3/2: His wife returns, and a couple of draggle-tailed daughters.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 12/2: By then the legitimate unemployed were right out of it, and the draggle-tailed Totties and the wharf-rats and chronic sots were in full possession. It simply rained beer in that lane.
1908		J. Guinan Soggarth Aroon 102: A bare-footed and draggled-skirted ‘slip of a girl’.
1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘Legion on the Wall’ Naval Occasions 57: The draggle-tailed Roman Eagle must have been a jest in the market-places of the world. [...] ‘Farewell and Adieu!’.
1912		Shaw Pygmalion II: I shall make a duchess of this draggle-tailed guttersnipe.
1919		C. Williams A Master of Crime 46: An attractive-looking but draggle-skirted young woman entered the room, selling matches.
1932		T. Croft Cloven Hoof 159: Little draggle-tailed drunkards, swallowing their gin sweetened with vermouth.
2000		Guardian G2 22: Draggletailed Diarmuid upbraided his colleague for spouting tosh.

3. of a place, run-down.

1959

A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 83: Back to the draggle-tailed bungalow.