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ramshackle

[ ram-shak-uhl ]

/ ˈræmˌʃæk əl /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR ramshackle ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

loosely made or held together; rickety; shaky: a ramshackle house.

Origin of ramshackle

1815–25; compare earlier rans(h)ackled, obscurely akin to ransack

SYNONYMS FOR ramshackle

tumbledown, dilapidated, derelict, flimsy.

SEE SYNONYMS FOR ramshackle ON THESAURUS.COM

OTHER WORDS FROM ramshackle

ram·shack·le·ness, noun

Words nearby ramshackle

ramses i, ramses ii, ramses iii, ramsey, ramsgate, ramshackle, ramshorn snail, ramson, ramsons, ramstam, ramstedt operation

Example sentences from the Web for ramshackle

They set out a strong set of “best practices” to modernize and improve the ramshackle way our democracy runs elections.

A Bipartisan Path to Fixing America’s Broken Elections |Michael Waldman |January 24, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Passing this unworkable, ramshackle bill is counterproductive or irrelevant to that task.

"Kill the Bill" |Michael Tomasky |July 9, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
Houses, some grand, others ramshackle, sit empty, cars in driveways.

Fukushima Nuclear Cleanup Bogged Down in Bureaucracy, Could Take Decades |Lennox Samuels |March 11, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
The main underlying cause of Election Day chaos remains our ramshackle voter registration system.

Obama Needs to Embrace Voting Reform in 2013 State of the Union |Michael Waldman, Lawrence Norden |February 12, 2013 |DAILY BEAST

Perhaps the biggest problem in election administration today is that we are using an outdated, ramshackle registration system.

After Voter-ID Wars, What Next? A Truce Through Modernization. |Lawrence Norden |September 1, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
But John harnessed his decrepit mare to his ramshackle buggy, and started for town.

The Girls of Central High |Gertrude W. Morrison
The bo'sun has cut adrift their ramshackle, old sieve of a boat, and she's now a quarter of a mile astern, half-full of water.

Romance |Joseph Conrad and F.M. Hueffer
They had a ramshackle house and barn, in a bit of open meadow by the mouth of one of the brooks.

A Northern Countryside |Rosalind Richards
The average Himalayan house is such a ramshackle affair that it is a miracle how it holds together.

Birds of the Indian Hills |Douglas Dewar
I looked round, but the ramshackle cart was hidden by the turn of the road.

The Wonder |J. D. Beresford

British Dictionary definitions for ramshackle

ramshackle

/ (ˈræmˌʃækəl) /

adjective

(esp of buildings) badly constructed or maintained; rickety, shaky, or derelict

Word Origin for ramshackle

C17 ramshackled, from obsolete ransackle to ransack