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 rannsaka, which combines rann, "house," and -saka, a relation of the Old English word sēcan, "to 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
Barbara Ellis, Denver Post, 20 Oct. 2025
Still, even if there were no rent freeze, Lee wouldn’t renovate his ramshackle apartment.
—Naaman Zhou, New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2025
Another great opportunity for anthuriums, or for any flower really, that could take a ramshackle bathroom situation to a royal design occasion.
—Julia Harrison, Architectural Digest, 7 Oct. 2025
The two manage to thrive together amid the decay and disorder of their East Hampton, New York mansion, making for an eerily ramshackle echo of the American Camelot.
—Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 23 Sep. 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 30 Oct. 2025.
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ramshackle
adjective
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