Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective So poorly constructed or kept up that disintegration is likely; rickety.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Loose-jointed; ill-made; out of gear or repair; crazy; tumble-down; unregulated; chaotic.
- noun A thoughtless fellow.
- A corrupt form of
ransack , confused with ramshackle.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Loose; disjointed; falling to pieces; out of repair.
- transitive verb Prov. Eng. To search or ransack; to rummage.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective In
disrepair ordisorder ; poorlymaintained ; lackingupkeep , usually of buildings or vehicles.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective in deplorable condition
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In the sequence that precedes the flag-raising, for instance, we see the beaches of Guadalcanal littered with the mutilated and charred corpses of both American and Japanese soldiers; and throughout we see wounded men lying in ramshackle battlefield hospitals, their flesh, fatigues, and bandages caked with dirt and blood, all on display in the most gruesome crystal clarity.
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In drug dealings, most dealers lived in ramshackle housing/with their parents in run down neighborhoods and died early.
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About 2,000 people live here, in ramshackle trailer homes, weather-battered recreational vehicles and well-kept brick houses.
Mexicans Fleeing the Drug War Pour Into the U.S. | Impact Lab 2010
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In the June issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, a important study by Tuba Üstüner (City University, London) and Douglas B. Holt (University of Oxford) explores how consumer culture is enacted in ramshackle neighborhoods on the peripheries of global cities.
May 10th, 2007 2007
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In the deslocado settlements where internally displaced women of all ages and points of origins were still crowded in ramshackle shelters, supporting children and aged parents and, often, unemployed husbands through backbreaking work in borrowed fields, survival depended to a great extent on one's ability to court and capitalize on extensive networks of friends and kin.
Where Women Make History: Gendered Tellings of Community and Change in Magude, Mozambique 2005
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Had she lived to hear Humfrey's new barn, with the verge boards conceded to her taste, called ramshackle?
Hopes and Fears or, scenes from the life of a spinster Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862
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During three separate Ontario stops this week, the Conservative leader has gradually dropped any reference to Ignatieff in his stump speeches and referred to the "ramshackle coalition" headed by Layton.
Thestar.com - Home Page Tim Harper 2011
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Artist and teacher Bruce and Debs Davies have transformed the basement of their terraced house - which they admit themselves is a little 'ramshackle' - into a cultural facility which they hope ultimately will be available for residencies and exhibitions on a regular basis.
The Guardian World News John Baron 2011
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The hypnotically undulating rhythms and wavering repetitive melodies of this Congolese septet recall the ramshackle tribal energy of M. I.A.'s debut (with authenticity replacing the overweening ego/sense of entitlement).
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Americans shudder at that poor education so many of our children receive, but the desire to get them out of schools that can only be described as ramshackle frequently collides with the attitude that no taxes should be raised to change the situation.
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