ramshackle
/ˈramʃak(ə)l
/adjective
(Especially of a house or vehicle) in a state of severe disrepair: a ramshackle cottage...
- The action of the play takes place in a remote ramshackle beach house built on sand dunes.
- When I was a small child, we lived in a ramshackle house with an old pressed tin roof.
- Off to one side was a gray, derelict, ramshackle house that looked ready to fall down.
Synonyms
tumbledown, dilapidated, derelict, ruinous, falling to pieces, decrepit, neglected, gone to rack and ruin, run down, crumbling, decaying, disintegrating, rickety, shaky, unsteady, broken down, unsound, unsafe
informal shambly, geriatric
North American informal shacky
Australian/New Zealand informal rumpty
Origin
Early 19th century (originally dialect in the sense 'irregular, disorderly'): alteration of earlier ramshackled, altered form of obsolete ransackled 'ransacked'.
A shaky building or a car with its bumper tied on with string might be called ramshackle, but it has nothing to do with rams or shackles. The word was originally a dialect term meaning ‘irregular, disorderly’, and is related to ransack.