A ramshackle building is badly made or in bad condition, and looks as if it is likely to fall down.
They entered the shop, which was a curious ramshackle building.
2. adjective [usually ADJECTIVE noun]
A ramshackle system, union, or collection of things has been put together without much thought and is not likely to work very well.
They joined with a ramshackle alliance of other rebels.
...the present tax system, which the opposition says is ramshackle and complicated.
More Synonyms of ramshackle
ramshackle in British English
(ˈræmˌʃækəl)
adjective
(esp of buildings) badly constructed or maintained; rickety, shaky, or derelict
Word origin
C17 ramshackled, from obsolete ransackle to ransack
ramshackle in American English
(ˈræmˌʃækəl)
adjective
loose and rickety; likely to fall to pieces; shaky
a ramshackle old building
Word origin
back-form. < ramshackled, for earlier ransackled, pp. of ransackle, freq. of ransack
Examples of 'ramshackle' in a sentence
ramshackle
There are more than 12,000 of these ramshackle little buildings across the island.
The Sun (2016)
This served in a ramshackle old building with a clientele that look like backpackers.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
Two of them landed next to a ramshackle building site and uniformed men hit the ground firing.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
We do not mean that they are a ramshackle collection of planks.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Now it is an endearingly ramshackle collection of wooden houses scattered over the hillside.
Richard Fortey THE EARTH: An Intimate History (2004)
Tourists step on to the river bank beside a ramshackle green hut and walk along a towpath under a busy road bridge.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
It's like moving into a ramshackle house and doing it up the way you want.
The Sun (2006)
There was no indoor tennis centre, just ramshackle old council courts and nowhere to have lessons.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
The poverty, the ramshackle buildings and the lawlessness made me so sad.
The Sun (2015)
We don't want to be a ramshackle collection of individuals.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
I pass a ramshackle house where an old woman pulls feathers from a huge chicken.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
I inhabit large but ramshackle houses whose roofs are crumbling and whose windows let in the rain.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
It's a winning fable about a bohemian family who live in a ramshackle house next to an incomplete stretch of motorway.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
It may be only a row of ramshackle huts no bigger than garden sheds, but it suggests a cash economy growing beyond mere subsistence.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
My favourite direction: 'You pass a ramshackle old farm with a very unfriendly dog but it is normally chained up.
The Sun (2014)
His family, who live in a ramshackle house in which five people share a bedroom, said that they had often struggled for money.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
After 45 minutes, we arrive in the depths of a thick maple forest to find a collection of ramshackle wooden huts with smoking chimneys.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
In appearance it was a ramshackle assortment of buildings built at different times for various purposes - some with football in mind, others for the racing.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
In other languages
ramshackle
British English: ramshackle ADJECTIVE
A ramshackle building is badly made or in bad condition, and looks as if it is likely to fall down.
They entered the shop, which was a curious ramshackle building.
American English: ramshackle
Brazilian Portuguese: caindo aos pedaços
Chinese: 摇摇欲坠的
European Spanish: destartalado
French: délabré
German: baufällig
Italian: fatiscente
Japanese: 倒れそうな
Korean: 쓰러질 듯한
European Portuguese: caindo aos pedaços
Latin American Spanish: destartalado
(adjective)
Definition
badly made or cared for
a curious ramshackle building
Synonyms
rickety
She climbed the rickety wooden stairway.
broken-down
crumbling
shaky
Our house will remain on shaky foundations unless the architect sorts out the basement.
unsafe
Critics claim the trucks are unsafe.
derelict
flimsy
a flimsy wooden door
tottering
dilapidated
She lived in a dilapidated old cottage.
decrepit
The film was shot in a decrepit police station.
unsteady
a slightly unsteady item of furniture
tumbledown
bare hills and dusty tumbledown villages
jerry-built
Workers at the plant speak of jerry-built equipment.
Opposites
solid
,
stable
,
steady
,
well-built
Additional synonyms
in the sense of decrepit
Definition
weakened or worn out by age or long use
The film was shot in a decrepit police station.
Synonyms
ruined,
broken-down,
battered,
crumbling,
rundown,
deteriorated,
decaying,
beat-up (informal),
shabby,
worn-out,
ramshackle,
dilapidated,
antiquated,
rickety,
weather-beaten,
tumbledown
in the sense of dilapidated
Definition
(of a building) having fallen into ruin
She lived in a dilapidated old cottage.
Synonyms
ruined,
fallen in,
broken-down,
battered,
neglected,
crumbling,
rundown,
decayed,
decaying,
falling apart,
beat-up (informal),
shaky,
shabby,
worn-out,
ramshackle,
in ruins,
rickety,
decrepit,
tumbledown,
uncared for,
gone to rack and ruin
in the sense of flimsy
Definition
not strong or substantial
a flimsy wooden door
Synonyms
fragile,
weak,
slight,
delicate,
shallow,
shaky,
frail,
superficial,
makeshift,
rickety,
insubstantial,
gimcrack,
unsubstantial
Nearby words of
ramshackle
rampage
rampant
rampart
ramshackle
rancid
rancorous
rancour
Synonyms of 'ramshackle'
ramshackle
Explore 'ramshackle' in the dictionary
Additional synonyms
in the sense of jerry-built
Definition
(of houses) built badly with cheap materials
Workers at the plant speak of jerry-built equipment.
Synonyms
ramshackle,
cheap,
faulty,
shabby,
defective,
flimsy,
rickety,
thrown together,
slipshod,
unsubstantial
in the sense of shaky
Definition
weak and unsteady, esp. due to illness or shock
Our house will remain on shaky foundations unless the architect sorts out the basement.