Literary notes about Slattern (AI summary)
In literature, "slattern" is often used as a disparaging term to characterize a woman whose disarray in dress and conduct symbolizes personal neglect and moral laxity. Writers deploy the word to denote not merely a lack of tidiness but also to imply a broader failure in maintaining the expected standards of behavior and decorum—for instance, highlighting a character as an "idle slattern" or critiquing her as unfit even under adverse circumstances [1, 2]. At times, the term functions as a versatile epithet that comments on both physical dishevelment and a deeper, almost symbolic deterioration of social and domestic order [3, 4]. In various narratives, the label extends beyond mere appearance, serving as a critical touchstone for satirizing societal decay and the consequences of a life neglected in both self-care and moral responsibility [5, 6].
- One of these was a woman of middle life, an idle slattern, who had for six or seven years lived a wandering life.
— from The Deemster by Caine, Hall, Sir - You don't suppose I mean to be a slattern if we are ever so poor.
— from Heriot's Choice: A Tale by Rosa Nouchette Carey - She is uncleanly in her Person, a Slattern in her Dress, and her Family is no better than a Dunghill .
— from The United States Bill of Rights The Ten Original Amendments to the Constitution of the United States by United States - By a slattern we mean a woman who shows lack of care and thought in clothing.
— from Book of Etiquette, Volume II by Lillian Eichler Watson - Where once the slattern lolled about the little salon, now moved an attractively garbed and tidy woman.
— from The Mountebank by William John Locke - She will fall little by little until she degenerates into an ambitionless slattern.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden
