tumble-down

[tuhm-buhl-doun]

adjective

1. dilapidated; ruined; rundown.

   He lived in a tumble-down shack.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tumble-down¹

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

The actual Los Angeles was a fly-ridden settlement of tumble-down adobes, packs of feral dogs and one of the nation’s highest murder rates.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Some peddled their pills near tumble-down storefronts and on blighted street corners in addiction-plagued parts of Allegheny County, where deaths by drug overdose reached record levels last year.

Read more on Seattle Times

Off a dirt road, in a small village north of Tirana, there's a half-built, tumble-down, brick house.

Read more on BBC

The city's High Street was a dirt road then, with tumble-down thatched cottages on one side and hoardings on the other.

Read more on BBC

Their father “was very drunk. He could hardly walk up the rickety steps of the old tumble-down house, and his thirteen-year-old son had to help him.”

Read more on The New Yorker

Related Words

• battered 
• broken-down 
• crumbling www.thesaurus.com
• damaged www.thesaurus.com
• decaying www.thesaurus.com
• decrepit 
• derelict 
• dingy 
• in ruins www.thesaurus.com
• neglected www.thesaurus.com
• ramshackle 
• rickety 
• run down 
• seedy 
• shabby 
• unkempt