Tatters. 1620, 1660, N.E.D.
1789. If you make the least complaint of the judge’s conduct, he daubs his blacking-balls in your face wherever he meets you; and besides tearing your private character to flitters, marks you out for the odium of the public, as an enemy to the liberty of the press.—Paper attributed to Franklin, American Museum, vi. 296/2 (Oct.).
1829. [The bull had broken] the most splendid mirror then in New England all to flitters.—Mass. Spy, June 10: from the Boston Philanthropist.
