disrepair

plural disrepairs

1. countableuncountableThe state of being in poor condition, in need of repair.

   The sewing machine is in disrepair.

   5 more examples

   The house had fallen into such disrepair that no agent would show it to buyers.

   Caleb would have said something of the disrepair of the chamber, but was silenced by the irritable impatience which was expressed in his master's countenance; he lighted the way trembling and in silence, placed the lamp on the table of the deserted room, and was about to attempt some arrangement of the bed, when his master bid him begone in a tone that admitted of no delay.

   1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC

   As Janet went back and forth, she was struck by the surprising charm that the old house showed within, quite out of keeping with its littered door-yard and outward disrepair. The white woodwork had gone long unpainted, it was true, and the floors were worn and uneven, but there was an airy spaciousness in the rooms, a comfortable dignity in the old mahogany furniture, and the grace of real beauty in the curved white staircase with its dark, polished rail.

   1921, Cornelia Meigs, The Windy Hill, Chapter 6

   All the A.C.V. four-wheel diesel railbuses are now stored in seeming disrepair at Derby Friargate.

   1962 January, “Motive Power Miscellany: London Midland Region: Midland Lines”, in Modern Railways, page 59

   We've defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own, and spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

   2017 January 20, Donald Trump, Inauguration speech

   Synonyms: unrepair

present singular third person disrepairs · participle present disrepairing · participle past disrepaired · past disrepaired

1. intransitiverareTo get into a state of disrepair.

   The house was disrepairing before your very eyes.

   1971, John Oliver Killens, The Cotillion, Or, One Good Bull is Half the Herd