v. [f. BE- + DRAGGLE.]
a. To wet (dress, skirts, or the like) so that they drag, or hang limp and clinging with moisture. b. ‘To soil clothes by suffering them, in walking, to reach the dirt.’ Johnson. (Rare in the active till modern times.)
1727. Swift, Past. Dial., Wks. 1755, IV. I. 78. Poor Patty Blount, no more be seen Bedraggled in my walks so green.
1857. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, 9. The very sky Bedraggled with the desolating salt.
1871. Daily News, 24 Aug., 5/6. The rain has fallen with a vengeance … bedraggling the flags and banners.
Hence, Bedraggled ppl. a., Bedragglement.
1727. [see prec.]
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 36. Such pale, careworn faces, such bedraggled dresses.
1852. Hawthorne, Tanglew. T., 105. All in a terribly bedraggled condition.
1882. Standard, 7 June, 3/1. Elaborate costumes … much the worse, not for wear, but for … bedragglement.
