Slang for Teddyboy.
The opposite of Mods -- they were the boys that your mother warned you about, the black leather-jacketed rough boys, the British version of greasers. The Beatles when they were on the Reeperbahn were Ted Lite.

Punk can be said to have grown out of the Teds. If James Dean and Marlon Brando were British they would have been Teds.

Ted (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tedded (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Tedding.] [Prob. fr. Icel. teja to spread manure, fr. ta manure; akin to MHG. zetten to scatter, spread. 58. Cf. Teathe.]

To spread, or turn from the swath, and scatter for drying, as new-mowed grass; -- chiefly used in the past participle.

The smell of grain or tedded grass. Milton.

The tedded hay and corn sheaved in one field. Coleridge.

 

© Webster 1913.