Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a falling state; dilapidated; decayed; ruinous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective colloq. Ready to fall; dilapidated; ruinous.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective in deplorable condition

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • She hears laughter from children who chase monarchs across the milkweed pasture beyond the tumble-down fence.

    Imago JP Reese 2011

  • At the base of the knolls he encountered a tumble-down stake-and-rider fence.

    Chapter VIII 2010

  • Millions of slovenly tenants in tumble-down council houses became proud home-owners.

    Notable & Quotable 2012

  • It proved to be a sort of yard behind a pair of open double gates, a place with an oily, earthen floor and a tumble-down shed at one end of it.

    Movie Night 2010

  • Seeing a tumble-down shack a short distance from the road, they raced toward it.

    I, TOO, DREAM.... 2010

  • Somewhere on the Yukon mainland she found a tumble-down cabin with the skeletons of eight horses tethered to a tree and a quarter-million dollars of placer gold in moosehide sacks.

    “Samuel! There was a rolling wonder in the sound. Ay, there was!” 2008

  • Those lumps and bumps you see may be spoil heaps or a tumble-down settlement.

    A portrait of Snailbeach 2008

  • At the far end is an old, tumble-down summer-house.

    The Seriously Deranged Writer and the Model Cars 2010

  • Those lumps and bumps you see may be spoil heaps or a tumble-down settlement.

    Archive 2008-10-01 2008

  • I was about frozen, though, when I spotted lights to starboard after about twenty minutes, and swerved away to find a tumble-down little village, populated by the usual half-human peasants.

    The Sky Writer Geoff Barbanell 2010

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