Dictionary

tradefallen en · ADJ

Etymology

From trade + fallen.

Meanings

1. (rare) out of work or business, unemployed
   • [D]iſcarded, vniuſt ſeruingmen, yonger ſonnes to yonger brothers, reuolted tapſters, and Oſtlers, tradefalne, the cankers of a calme world, and a long peace, ten times more diſhonourable ragged then an olde fazd ancient, […] c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
   • In thee I defye all men, there worſt hates, / And their beſt flatteries, all their golden witchcrafts, / With which they intangle the poore ſpirits of fooles, / Diſtreſſed needlewomen and trade-fallne wiues. / Fiſh that muſt needs bite, or themſelues be bitten, / Such hungry things as theſe may ſoone be tooke / With a worme faſtned on a golden hooke. c. 1607–1610 (date written), Thomas Middleton; Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girle. Or Moll Cut-purse. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Archer, […], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page number):
   • It is depressing to watch the bitterness of the disinherited in these sorting-pens; the surliness of outcasts and tradefallen failures—yet no sooner do they step ashore at the Battery than they fill their lungs with American air, which has a marvellous effect. 1919, William George Fitzgerald, “Ignatius Phayre”, in America’s Day: Studies in Light and Shade, page 55:

Forms