The refugees were in tattered clothes, gaunt and sallow.
Tips
history
褴褛 (lánlǚ, "ragged") goes back to 《左传·宣公十二年》 in the phrase 筚路蓝缕 — the Chu rulers "in tattered clothes and a brushwood cart" opening up the mountain forests.
memory
The two "衤" (clothing) radicals in 褴褛 both literally signal "garment" — the whole word is doubly marked as "clothes-clothes-worn-out".
