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
Letters To The Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 10 May 2025
Grand Tour is a little like these men and their machine: a deliberately ramshackle work made more captivating through its lack of conventional modes of propulsion and meaning.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 28 Mar. 2025
That’s when college pals John Schoenstein and Michael Barnes moved their wholesale pottery business from Pomona into a large but rather ramshackle building on the east side of Old Creamery Road.
—Kathe Tanner, Sacbee.com, 23 Apr. 2025
Wide public spaces and malls replace the ramshackle markets.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 4 Mar. 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 21 May. 2025.
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ramshackle
adjective
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