ramshackle
adjective
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The Evolution of Ramshackle
Ramshackle has nothing to do with rams, nor the act of being rammed, nor shackles. The word is an alteration of ransackled, an obsolete form of the verb ransack, meaning "to search through or plunder." (Ransack comes from Old Norse words meaning "house" and "seek.") A home that has been ransacked has had its contents thrown into disarray, and that image may be what inspired people to start using ramshackle in the first half of the 19th century to describe something that is poorly constructed or in a state of near collapse. Ramshackle in modern use can also be figurative, as in "a ramshackle excuse for the error."
Examples of ramshackle in a Sentence
Jeremy Dauber, HollywoodReporter, 31 July 2025
On a May morning in 2012, a ramshackle walkway at a Southeast Austin apartment complex collapsed.
—Ella McCarthy, Austin American Statesman, 30 July 2025
Swannanoa still reeling In Swannanoa, just a few miles from Asheville’s cobblestone streets and Black Mountain’s bustling breweries, piles of debris and ramshackle homes still line the roads.
—Charlotte Observer, 3 July 2025
Prior to its recent resurgence, Detroit's Brush Park had been a sparsely populated neighborhood with large swaths of vacant lots amid a few ramshackle Victorian mansions.
—Jc Reindl, Freep.com, 9 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for ramshackle
Cite this Entry
“Ramshackle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ramshackle. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
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ramshackle
adjective
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