Torn into tatters or rags; reduced to a ragged, tattered condition; worn and torn.
Past participle of 'betatter' used as an adjective, with the suffix '-ed' marking completed action. Emphasizes something that has been thoroughly reduced to rags.
'Betattered' is more severe than 'tattered'—the 'be-' prefix makes it sound irreversibly ruined, which is why Dickens and other Victorian writers used it to describe the clothes of the desperately poor.
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