tumbledown

adjective

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tum·ble·down | \ ˈtəm-bəl-ˈdau̇n

Definition of tumbledown

: dilapidated, ramshackle a tumbledown house at the edge of town— Sherwood Anderson

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Examples of tumbledown in a Sentence

lived alone on a tumbledown farm that had seen better days

Recent Examples on the Web Activists share tumbledown houses, and a single piece of architecture can serve multiple functions: a townhouse is as much a house as an activist center; a storefront with peeling paint does double duty as a school. — Los Angeles Times, 21 Apr. 2021 With no ties to bind him, Cal has acted on his dream and bought a tumbledown Irish cottage advertised on the Internet. — Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2020 The slip where the ship is now located is flanked on one side by cement stacks belching white smog; on the other is the tumbledown sanctuary where the ancient Athenians once celebrated their religious mystery rites. — Alexander Clapp, The New Republic, 28 Sep. 2020 Back in the truck, Mr. Grant pointed to a tumbledown shack on the west side of the road. — Michael Tortorello, New York Times, 4 Mar. 2018 Above them all is grandmother Muriel (Ann Reid), who lives in a large tumbledown manse where the family will gather intermittently across the years. — Robert Lloyd, chicagotribune.com, 26 June 2019 The cramped establishment, called Pizza House, hunkers in an alley within the tumbledown bazaar. — Paul Salopek, National Geographic, 21 Aug. 2019 Then there is the matter of Bernadette herself, who spends her days randomly fixing up and tweaking elements of her tumbledown house and dictating memos to her virtual assistant, apparently named Manjula and located in India. — Alissa Wilkinson, Vox, 16 Aug. 2019 Above them all is grandmother Muriel (Ann Reid), who lives in a large tumbledown manse where the family will gather intermittently across the years. — Robert Lloyd, chicagotribune.com, 26 June 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tumbledown.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.