fixer-upper
Americannoun
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a person who is handy at making repairs.
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a rundown dwelling offered at a bargain price and suitable for improvement by a new owner, often with the object of resale at a considerable profit.
Etymology
Origin of fixer-upper
fix up + -er 1, pleonastically suffixed to both words
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.
When my wife and I were making $17,000 a year, we went into a realtor’s office to buy a home and laughed and said he had nothing we could afford — not even a fixer-upper.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 22, 2026
Haylii, 22, from Essex bought her first fixer-upper home last year, after saving for a deposit while working in hospitality from the age of 17.
From BBC • Apr. 20, 2026
But to foreigners undaunted by a fixer-upper, buying an akiya is a chance to own something permanent in Japan.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026
The couple had just moved from their modest fixer-upper in Altadena’s Janes Village to their dream home in architect Gregory Ain’s Park Planned homes, when the Eaton fire roared to life.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 9, 2025
If you like granite, you might like the house; but even if you don’t, “granite” certainly doesn’t connote a fixer-upper.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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.
