3. (colloquial).—An abbreviation of 'tattoo.'
Tit for tat. See Tit.
Ta-ta, intj. (common).—A salutation;
'Good-bye'!
18[?]. Stevenson, Treas. of Franchard. And so, ta-ta! I might as well have stayed away for any good I have done.
Tatarwagges. See Tatters.
Tater (or Tatur), subs. (vulgar).—A
potato (q.v.). Whence tater-trap
= the mouth; tater-and-point = a
meal of potatoes: see
point. Also as noteworthy, one
or two phrases: e.g., to settle
one's taters = to settle one's
hash; to strain one's taters
= to piss (q.v.); s'welp my
taters (see swelp).
1838. Beckett, Paradise Lost, 57. Taste this . . . 'Twill to your tater-trap prove nice.
1856. Mayhew, World of London, 6, note. On this principle . . . the mouth has come to be styled the tater-trap.
1869. Echo, 9 Sept. 'Life of London Boys.' They . . . would climb anywhere—where they would nick the taters, or apples, or onions, or anything else.
1891. Notes and Queries, 7 S. xi. 29. Uncommon fine taters them, sir.
Tatol, subs. (Winchester).—A tutor
in Commoners.
Tatterdemalion, subs. (old).—A
ragged wretch: a general term
of contempt: also tatter, and
rags-and-tatters: see quot.
1696. Tatarwaggs and tatterwallops
= ragged clothes
(Grose). See Tat, 2. As adj. =
ragged.
1360. Chaucer, Romaunt of the Rose. [Tyrwhitt, (Routledge), 7259.] And with graie clothis nat full clene, But frettid full of tatarwagges.
1608. Smith, True Travels, i. 40. Those tattertimallions will have two or three horses . . . as well for service as for to eat.
1617. Brathwaite, Smoaking Age, 47. Whole families shall maintaine their tatterdemallions, with hanging thee out in a string.
1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iii. Why . . . should thou and I onely be miserable tatterdemalions, rag-a-muffins, and lowsy desperates?
1626. Smith, Eng. Sea Terms, 864. Tattertimallion [appears amongst new substantives].
1633. Heywood, Royal King [Pearson, Works, 1874, vi. 31]. A Tatter-*demalean that stayes to sit at the Ordinary to-day.
1638. Randolph, Hey for Honesty, iii. 1. Well spoke, my noble English tatler.
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.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1770), 10. There are a few Tatter-demallions, That (with a Pox) would be Italians.
1687. Brown, Saints in an Uproar (Works, i. 82]. The women . . . exclaim against Lobsters and Tatterdemallions. Ibid., ii. 181. A couple of tatterdemalion hobgobblings.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xxix. I wonder . . . what pleasure you can find in talking thus with this lousy tatterdemallion of a monk.
c. 1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. s.v. Tatter-de-mallion, a ragged tatter'd Begger, sometimes half Naked, with design to move Charity, having better Cloths at Home. In Tatters, in Raggs. Tatter'd and Torn, rent and torn.
1700. Congreve, Way of the World, iii. 5. I'll reduce him to frippery and rags, a tatterdemalion! I hope to see him hung with tatters, like a . . . gibbet thief.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Clinker (1900), i. 106. Mrs. Bramble . . . said she had never seen such a filthy tatterdemalion, and bid him begone.
1887. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie. Crime's rabble, hell's tatterdemalion.
