Ramshackle \Ram"shac*kle\ (r[a^]m"sh[a^]k*k'l), a. [Etymol.
uncertain.]
Loose; disjointed; falling to pieces; out of repair.
[1913 Webster]
There came . . . my lord the cardinal, in his
ramshackle coach. --Thackeray.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Ramshackle \Ram"shac*kle\, v. t.
To search or ransack; to rummage. [Prov. Eng.]
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
ramshackle
adj : in deplorable condition; "a street of bedraggled tenements";
"a broken-down fence"; "a ramshackle old pier"; "a
tumble-down shack" [syn: bedraggled, broken-down, dilapidated,
tatterdemalion, tumble-down, unsound]
WordNet (r) 2.0
35 Moby Thesaurus words for "ramshackle":
battered, beat-up, beaten up, broken-down, crumbling, decrepit,
derelict, dilapidated, doddering, flimsy, groggy, in disrepair,
in ruins, insubstantial, jerry-built, neglected, ricketish,
rickety, rocky, ruined, ruinous, run-down, shaky, slummy, spidery,
spindly, teetering, teetery, tottering, tottery, tumbledown,
unstable, unsteady, unsubstantial, wobbly
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
RAMSHACKLE, adj. Pertaining to a certain order of architecture,
otherwise known as the Normal American. Most of the public buildings
of the United States are of the Ramshackle order, though some of our
earlier architects preferred the Ironic. Recent additions to the
White House in Washington are Theo-Doric, the ecclesiastic order of
the Dorians. They are exceedingly fine and cost one hundred dollars a
brick.
THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)
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