in tatters

in tatters

1. Badly torn in many places; in shreds.
2. (figurative) Ruined, destroyed, wrecked.
   • 2020 July 15, Mike Brown talks to Paul Clifton, “Leading London's "hidden heroes"”, in Rail, page 45:

     Its financial plans for 2020-24, published last December, lie in tatters. TfL Chief Financial Officer Simon Kilonback told his board in June: "It is unlikely, even with significant external support, that we will return to any similar plan or levels of investment in the medium term."

   • 2021 September 2, Roger Cohen, “The French Left Is in Disarray, but Here Comes Anne Hidalgo”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Most polls give the left, divided between Socialists, ecologists and far-left parties, less than 30 percent of the vote in a France drifting rightward. The once-proud “gauche” is in tatters.

• “in tatters”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• intratest, rattinets