tumbledown

adj

tumbledown

adj

Etymology Deverbal from tumble down.

1

In disrepair; poorly maintained.

  • They lived in a tumbledown shack on the edge of the woods.
  • The cab pulled up in front of a tumbledown cheap ‘villa’ in an unfinished cheap neighbourhood, — the whole place a living monument of the defeat of the speculative builder.1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
1 more example
  • Some distance north of both stations was a rather small and tumbledown shed for Great Central engines, and there was generally one or more goods tank engines outside it, painted black and lined out in red.1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 19:
Synonyms
ramshackle

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.