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
Smilash had immediately promised to dilapidate it to its former state at the end of the year.
From An Unsocial Socialist by Bernard Shaw
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 John West
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 Sarah Anne Curzon
Buffets and gyves from your effete Old monarchy dilapidate, Or freedom's laurels for thy brow?
From Poems Vol. IV by Hattie Howard
The zoo, which houses more than 1,600 animals, has become dilapidated over the years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
The city’s complaint included exhibits showing the dilapidated conditions of the homes—standing sewage in basements, black mold on walls, crumbling infrastructure—which it called harmful to the health and safety of the public.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
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
We took in the room, quickly at first to scan for danger, and then with more care to see everything we could in this space that was not forest or dilapidated barn.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
In Ireland, deserted and betrayed, it has received a dilapidating shock.
From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by John Lyde Wilson
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 James Seaton Cockburn
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 John Hill Burton
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 James Seaton Cockburn
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.
