tumbledown

comparative more tumbledown · superlative most tumbledown · alternative tumble-down

1. In disrepair; poorly maintained.

   They lived in a tumbledown shack on the edge of the woods.

   2 more examples

   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

   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