dilapidate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cause or allow (a building, automobile, etc.) to fall into a state of disrepair, as by misuse or neglect (often used passively).
The house had been dilapidated by neglect.
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Archaic. to squander; waste.
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dilapidate
1560–70; < Medieval Latin dīlapidātus, past participle of dīlapidāre to squander (compare dīlapidātiō disrepair), Latin: to pelt with stones; see di- 2, lapidate
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Victorian houses that line the avenues have been allowed to dilapidate.
From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2015
They were too prone to dilapidate and destroy their dwellings; they were therefore required to pay for the locks, cupboards, and doors.
From The History of Tasmania , Volume II by West, John
They were not such as I could combat; and I am driven to dilapidate the funds of my own country by a theft.
From Prince Otto, a Romance by Stevenson, Robert Louis
Near this abode, but just beyond the gate, A simple cottage stood, old and dilapidate, The home of a poor weaver.
From Laura Secord, the heroine of 1812. A Drama. and Other Poems. by Curzon, Sarah Anne
Hassenfratz dilapidates at home; Dumouriez grumbles and they dilapidate abroad: within the walls there is sinning, and without the walls there is sinning.
From The French Revolution by Carlyle, Thomas
The building, filled to its ceilings, grew increasingly dilapidated; Langley’s paranoia about suspected intruders led him to build mazes of detritus to throw them off.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
The 49-year-old lives with her daughter in an open-front wooden home metres from a dilapidated sign reading "Tiger Reintroduction Project".
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
As we leave the dilapidated compound, with books strewn across the floors of some classrooms, we spot a schoolgirl in uniform walking forlornly towards her home.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Mowry, 47, and her spouse, Adam Housley, 54, announced in April that they had embarked on a very extensive renovation of a dilapidated property in wine country.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
Mom and Dad moved into a six-story flophouse in a more dilapidated neighborhood.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
As science, however, truly considered, is the art of dilapidating and merging into confused ruin the theories of your predecessors, I was somewhat more precise with the destructive than the constructive part of my plan.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 12, No. 28, July, 1873 by Various
Winnepeg, the much talked of Capital of the West, is simply dilapidating, and as far west as Regina living is high and wages low.
From Canada for Gentlemen by Cockburn, James Seaton
The lamp, standing alone in the midst of confusion, suffered a partial eclipse; and my favourite Dublin meerschaum successfully resisted the dilapidating effect of a fall of several feet.
From Canada for Gentlemen by Cockburn, James Seaton
One book, and that the most read of all, was hedged by a sort of divinity which protected it, so far as that was practicable, from the dilapidating effects of use.
From The Book-Hunter A New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author by Burton, John Hill
In Ireland, deserted and betrayed, it has received a dilapidating shock.
From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by Wilson, John Lyde
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
