ramshackle
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- ramshackleness noun
Etymology
Origin of ramshackle
1815–25; compare earlier rans(h)ackled, obscurely akin to ransack
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.
On the opposite side, a ramshackle cabin hovered over the water on wooden stilts.
From Literature
Among the region’s architectural highlights are the ramshackle row houses of the ancient Penedo village and the precarious seaside village of Azenhas do Mar with its white cottages clinging to coastal cliffs.
This house is too squat; I pictured Charles living in a ramshackle place a hundred years old, the type of location where knobs are always coming off bannisters in people’s hands.
From Literature
A cardboard box found in a collector's "ramshackle" collection of vintage films contained two episodes of Doctor Who that have not been viewed since airing in the 1960s.
From BBC
I also inherited my beloved — at least by me — ramshackle family home that has not been lived in for more than 20 years.
From MarketWatch
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.
