What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Shabby vs Tattered - What's the difference?

shabby | tattered |

As adjectives the difference between shabby and tattered

is that shabby is torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged while tattered is rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged.

As a verb tattered is

(tatter).

shabby

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.}}
    They lived in a tiny apartment, with some old, shabby furniture.
  • Clothed with ragged, much worn, or soiled garments.
    • The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.
  • Mean; paltry; despicable.
    • shabby treatment

    Derived terms

    * shabby-genteel (Webster 1913)

    tattered

    English

    Alternative forms

    * tottered

    Adjective

    (-)
  • rent in tatters, torn, hanging in rags; ragged
  • * 1919 , :
    • The chattering, irrational brute of the subconscious clothes itself in the tattered garments of rationality and idealism.
  • dressed in tatters or rags; ragged
  • (obsolete) dilapidated; showing gaps or breaks; jagged; broken

    • Verb

    (head)
  • (tatter)

    • References

    * *