jerry-built
1
7.8
- adjective
- /ˈdʒɛriˌbɪlt/
- The jerry-built houses collapsed during the first strong wind, showing how poor their construction was.
- looks jerry-built
Examples
-
They look jerry-built and seem confused about their basic function.
Fiction book (1997) -
Yes, the whole setup looks jerry-built, but you can get plans for nice cabinets with shelves and notches if you are interested in carpentry.
Academic text (1999) -
For all the time and money that went into it, it's jerry-built, a ship that slides straight to the bottom at its christening.
Blog text (18) -
Initially, the group housed the station's jerry-built transmitter in the estate's sheep shed.
Academic text (2007) -
Tens of thousands of rice farmers were forced to move to the jerry-built slums of Port-au-Prince.
Blog text (22) -
But the ceiling was low, giving it a barracks-like feel, something prefabricated, jerry-built, and now I heard some faint recorded organ tones.
Fiction book (1997) -
Her stand was clumsy and jerry-built, but amateurishly vivid and not unwelcoming.
Fiction book (1995) -
And of course, there are the ludicrous souvenirs of the Soviets, the crumbling concrete of that vast jerry-built empire.
Academic text (2008) -
Our neighborhood was a tacky collection of jerry-built rental houses which a landowner in the village of Iwaoka, about five miles farther back in the countryside, had put up.
Fiction book (2002) -
It was jerry-built from scavenged lumber, and we weren't carpenters, but it lasted ten years.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
35
4.5
Not made well and likely to break or stop working
9
7.5
Old and in very bad condition, like a house about to fall down
5
7.6
Made quickly from things on hand to work for a short time
4
3.7
Made in a way that does not work well or is hard to use
Antonyms
How Well Built
Surface Forms
Morphology
jerry-built = jerry + built (opaque) = jerry + built
Although 'built' indicates construction, 'jerry' does not carry a predictable negative meaning for learners, so the combined sense 'poorly constructed' cannot be derived reliably.
Etymology
Jerry-built likely comes from an old slang name jerry for something cheap or poorly made, and one popular story says it was used from calling Germans 'Jerry' in wartime, though no one is sure. So jerry-built means 'built cheaply' or 'hastily', which is why we use it for weak or unsafe buildings.