Ramshackle

/ˈɹæmˌʃæk.əl/ · adjective

Meaning

In disrepair or disorder; poorly maintained; lacking upkeep, usually of buildings or vehicles..

Definitions by Sense

1. In disrepair or disorder; poorly maintained; lacking upkeep, usually of buildings or vehicles.
2. Badly or carelessly organized.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To ransack.

Example Sentences

They stayed in a ramshackle cabin on the beach.

Steady old Curés come jolting past, now and then, in such ramshackle, rusty, musty, clattering coaches as no Englishman would believe in;[…]

There came […] my lord the cardinal, in his ramshackle coach.

I called for the cheeses, and took them away in a cab. It was a ramshackle affair, dragged along by a knock-kneed, broken-winded somnambulist, which his owner, in a moment of enthusiasm, during conversation, referred to as a horse.

A ramshackle old empire. (of Austria-Hungary).

The villa was a roomy white house, which, as is the case with most continental houses, looked to an English eye frail, ramshackle, and absurdly frivolous, more like a pagoda in a tea-garden than a place where one slept.

When they got out of the Gare du Nord, and trundled along the cobbled streets in a ramshackle, noisy cab, it seemed to him that he was breathing a new air so intoxicating that he could hardly restrain himself from shouting aloud.

The back of the Radley house was less inviting than the front: a ramshackle porch ran the width of the house; there were two doors and two dark windows between the doors. Instead of a column, a rough two-by-four supported one end of the roof. An old Franklin stove sat in a corner of the porch; above it a hat-rack mirror caught the moon and shone eerily.

Synonyms for ramshackle

Antonyms for ramshackle

Related Words

Word Forms

• more ramshackle
• most ramshackle
• ramshackles
• ramshackling
• ramshackled

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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