the owner has let the restaurant become increasingly tatty over the years
Recent Examples on the WebOn a candlelit, makeshift stage in a tentpole town near the Great Lakes, as attendees post up in tatty lawn chairs, Kirsten puts up a Hamlet monologue as gorgeous and gripping as any in a fancy London theater. Hillary Kelly, Vulture, 23 Dec. 2021 Hurd, however, transcended Trump’s tatty coattails just enough to win the district by 1.3 percentage points over former Democratic Congressman Pete Gallego. Gilbert Garcia, San Antonio Express-News, 5 Oct. 2021 Science educators were not interested in running a playground that, after 40-plus years, had become physically tatty and obsolete in its predigital presentation. Mark Lamster, Dallas News, 11 Aug. 2021 Like many of the city’s saloons, Marie’s Crisis, the tatty but venerable West Village piano bar, was closed during the pandemic. Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 17 July 2021 But those concerns often conveniently overlooked the tatty crud regularly published in the country’s reactionary right-wing tabloids, many of which are owned by Murdoch, which have had a profoundly deleterious effect on British society for decades. Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 21 June 2021 Reiko Huffman’s scenic design re-creates well the tatty motel where King spent his last night.San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Apr. 2021 The company turned its tatty icons like Mickey Mouse into cash cows. Ben Smith, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2020 The final page of the book shows him being pursued by Bambolona, the baker’s friendly but plain-faced daughter, who hands him a tatty bunch of flowers. Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2020 See More
Word History
Etymology
perhaps akin to Old English tætteca rag — more at tatter