(n.) A rag, or a part torn and hanging; -- chiefly used in the plural.
(v. t.) To rend or tear into rags; -- used chiefly in the past participle as an adjective.
Example Sentences:
(1) But over-promising has left him in a worse position with all three than he was in before, and with his credibility in tatters.
(2) The Guardian witnessed one desperate vignette in Gevgeliya on Saturday: a Syrian woman in her 40s asking a fellow traveller for money to buy shoes as hers were in tatters.
(3) Barack Obama's policy of engagement with North Korea lies "in tatters" after it was effectively shot down by Pynongyang's defiant but failed attempt to launch a long-range rocket.
(4) George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said: "This is hugely significant, as it completely vindicates the big decision taken by David Cameron and myself on the economy, and it leaves Gordon Brown's political plans for the G20 and the budget in tatters."
(5) An attempt by George Osborne to besmirch the reputation of Ed Balls by linking him directly to the Libor-fixing scandal lay in tatters on Monday night after the Bank of England cleared the shadow chancellor .
(6) The violence has left in tatters a 2013 ceasefire aimed at allowing a final peace deal to end the PKK’s three-decade insurgency, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
(7) Matthew Pennycook is MP for Greenwich and Woolwich Louise Haigh: ‘Bringing down Corbyn would be an act of betrayal’ Facebook Twitter Pinterest Louise Haigh New Labour was a response to a Tory party in tatters, besieged by scandal, its fiscal credibility in ruins, tired and out of ideas.
(8) Sunderland’s right-back, Santiago Vergini, inadvertently gave Southampton the lead by lashing the ball into his own net in the 12th minute, and that signalled the start of a barmy encounter that had home fans in raptures and Sunderland in tatters.
(9) The US has warned it could level “serious sanctions” on Russia within days over breaches of Ukraine’s truce, which is in tatters despite pro-Moscow rebels and government forces exchanging scores of prisoners.
(10) Even if you don't get the gag on the way in – the doormen wear tattered clothes – then the penny drops when you enter the L-shaped, 200-capacity basement and see the satirical murals spoofing Manhattan's high-society swells.
(11) Even her own colleagues are saying her net migration target is in tatters.
(12) He had taken from YuzuÞ the tattered evidence of my walk across South Asia and was examining it: the clipping from the newspaper in western Nepal, 'Mr Stewart is a pilgrim for peace'; the letter from the Conservator, Second Circle, Forestry Department, Himachal Pradesh, India: 'Mr Stewart, a Scot, is interested in the environment'; from a District OfÞcer in the Punjab and a Secretary of the Interior in a Himalayan state and a Chief Engineer of the Pakistan Department of Irrigation requesting 'All Executive Engineers (XENs) on the Lower Bari Doab to assist Mr Stewart, who will be undertaking a journey on foot to research the history of the canal system'.
(13) He accomplished a few, mainly social reforms – but he leaves a country on edge, and a left in tatters.
(14) He’s also received a legal notice telling him a court judgment had been entered against him, and his credit file was left in tatters, leaving his plans to build an extension hanging in the balance.
(15) As Scotland Yard surveys the tatters of the Morgan case the picture has become not clearer but more opaque.
(16) The sudden switch by Yanukovych following weeks of brinkmanship left European policy towards the post-Soviet states to its east in tatters.
(17) The opposition is in tatters and divided on how to confront this implacable force.
(18) Awet clutches a tattered Norwegian identity card as he talks.
(19) She arrived, shoved her pager at me and a tattered piece of paper with about 12 names on it.
(20) The chancellor's forecasts of £43bn of borrowing this year are in tatters and some experts have warned that debt could balloon to £120bn in three years.