prefab
4
5.1
- adjective
- /ˈpriːfæb/
- Many families are choosing prefab homes for their affordability and quick construction.
- prefab home
- prefab builders
Examples
-
The office is a prefab aluminum box with a flat roof that frightens me during snowfalls.
Fiction book (1990) -
A second and much bigger prefab building was put up next to the first one.
Fiction book (1991) -
We will be developing prefab houses.
-
But for right now, we decided that real estate and quality prefab homes... was the right way to go.
-
Can we just say that if the wood isn't here on time, we'll have the prefab stuff ready to go?
-
Uh, actually IKEA makes prefab entertainment units.
-
I had to break down and hire a plumber to get that prefab shower installed.
Fiction book (1994) -
The four of them lived near the school at the end of a cotton field in a prefab shack with peeling yellow paint.
Fiction book (1991) -
Cooperative firms of a traditional bent are learning to craft posts to the uniform quality standards required by the prefab home builders.
Academic text (1997) -
HQ-Alpha Continent Station Nine was a collection of graceless but functional white prefab buildings, bright in the subtropical sun, shaded here and there by slender native trees.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
5
4.3
Made earlier in parts so it can be quickly put together or used
1
4.4
Made in a set shape before use
1
6.0
Concrete parts made in their final shape before delivery to the building site
1
3.7
Put together before you buy or use it
1
3.7
Made in a factory before being assembled at the final site
1
4.4
Made before use so it already has the right outline
How Prefabricated
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word prefab is short for prefabricated, where pre- means 'before' and fabric comes from a word meaning 'to make', just like fabric, cloth, which is something made. So a prefab item is 'made before' and then moved to the building site to be put together.