1655 A. Symson Wilson's Compl. Christian Dict. (rev. ed.) 535/1 Their rags; such as they shall have shall in a slatternly manner hang loose about those that were so curious in girding and fitting their garments to their bodies before.

1767 B. Franklin Let. 17 June in Papers (1970) XIV. 189 She was drest..in an Undress; a kind of slatternly Negligée.

1776 F. Burney Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1990) II. 203 We saw the young & handsome Duchess..walking in such an undressed and slaternly manner.

1801 M. Edgeworth Angelina iv, in Moral Tales II. 108 The slatternly dirty appearance of her Araminta's dress.

a1853 F. W. Robertson Lect. & Addr. Lit. & Social Topics (1858) i. 33 A home made wretched by a wife's slatternly conduct.

1877 A. B. Edwards Thousand Miles up Nile xxii. 702 The rooms were untidy; the general aspect of the place was slatternly and neglected.

1941 A. McKay They came to River ii. vii. 172 Some boy..went openly to see Ruby, in her slatternly home below the tracks.

2018 Dominion Post (Wellington, N.Z.) (Nexis) 17 Dec. 12 I have been staying with friends of mine..whose spotless abode is an endless rebuke to my slatternly ways.

1783 tr. Virgil Eclogue iii. 68 in New Transl. Virgil's Eclogues At least one third of the most eminent, and principal beauties of the Æneid, are either omitted—or expressed—in a slatternly, vulgar manner.

1843 Times 4 May 5/4 Scarcely can a more slatternly confusion of terms be found.

1946 D. L. Sayers Unpopular Opinions 7 The second [section] will offend..all those who use and enjoy slatternly forms of speech.

2017 New Yorker (Nexis) 3 July (Books section) 67 With intrusive narrators, slatternly plots, odd punctuation, and long, ambling digressions, books like ‘Tristram Shandy’ and ‘Joseph Andrews’ try the patience of many contemporary readers.

1677 W. Wycherley Plain-dealer ii. 23 As sluttish, and slatternly, as an Irish Woman bred in France.

c1680 C. Cotton Epist. to Sir C. Clifton 49 One that had since bin her Maid;..a slatternly ill-favour'd toad.

1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison VI. vi. 21 She..looked so shy! so silly! so slatternly!

1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. vi. 98 I am..slatternly; I seldom put, and never keep things in order; I am careless.

1865 E. C. Clayton Cruel Fortune I. 143 The tatterdemalion, slatternly, slipshod women who lounge..against the door-posts.

1945 H. L. Mencken Diary 14 Dec. (1989) 396 No such shabby, ill-fed men and filthy, slatternly women and children have ever been seen in Baltimore before.

2010 T. Gunn & A. Calhoun Gunn's Golden Rules viii. 117 It's always better to err on the side of beauty over comfort... And it's certainly better than being the dowdy, depressing, slatternly housewife.

1771 M. Latter Pro & Con 84 Confess this Truth all ye slatternly Tribe of feeble, Female Scribblers, who, with Rivers of Ink, blot Reams of Paper, with useless, senseless, sentimental Novels.

1780 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting (ed. 2) IV. i. 34 The time he wasted on his works, in which at least he was the reverse of his slatternly cotemporaries.

1812 W. Scott Let. 20 Dec. (1932) III. 205 When you have twenty things to tell it is better to be slatternly than tedious.

1929 J. P. O'Connor Mem. Parliamentarian II. iii. 60 He was not an extravagant man; on the contrary, he was what the Irish call a rather ‘near’ man; but he was slatternly, never answered letters, took no notice of bills, and ran up accounts unconsciously and for years at a tune.

2017 Irish Times (Nexis) 24 June 11 How could such a slatternly charlatan be taken seriously as a moral philosopher in the line of Aristotle, Spinoza or Kant?