jerry-built 1 of 2

adjective

ˈjer-ē-ˌbilt How to pronounce jerry-built (audio)
Definition of jerry-builtnext
as in clumsy
hastily or roughly constructed my jerry-built wine racks may not look pretty, but they get the job done

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

jerry-built

2 of 2

verb

past tense of jerry-build
as in rebuilt

Related Words

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for jerry-built
  1. clumsy
  2. rebuilt
  3. rough
  4. reconstructed
  5. rude
  6. retrofitted
  7. flawed
  8. devised
Adjective
  • Feed your head Neagley gets off to a sluggish start, with a workmanlike, rather clumsy first episode largely spent establishing the main characters and central plot—and the writers lean a bit too hard on constant Chicago callbacks.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 21 Sep. 2026
  • The residents of Mossy Bottom Farm are looking forward to Halloween – until the clumsy Farmer trashes the Flock’s beloved pumpkin patch.
    — Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of clumsy
Verb
  • With the town motel still not having been rebuilt, John stays at Hal’s for the night, where feeding his carnivorous alien plant Earl helps the former hero’s demise truly set in.
    — Siddhant Adlakha, Vulture, 21 Sep. 2026
  • The city determined in 2024 that the park was outdated and needed to be completely rebuilt.
    — Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of rebuilt
Adjective
  • Court records show that Jang reported McKinsey to police in 2023, accusing him of shoving one of their children and using rough physical discipline with them generally.
    — TERRY CHEA, Arkansas Online, 30 Sep. 2026
  • Tori famously dated Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s main character, Zack Morris, despite the two having gotten off to a rough start.
    — Raechal Shewfelt, Entertainment Weekly, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of rough
Verb
  • In the paper, the team reconstructed how the collapse of the Hunga volcano unfolded.
    — Yook Ji Hun, ArsTechnica, 23 Sep. 2026
  • What happened—which can be reconstructed from messages that the agents sent one another and from traces of their own internal reasoning, known as chain-of-thought records—makes for gripping reading.
    — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of reconstructed
Adjective
  • Other teachers would also forward Phillips copies of rude emails sent by Moore.
    — Steven Walker, The Orlando Sentinel, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Loud phone use, rude behavior toward airport staff, and careless suitcase handling can make stressful terminals even more frustrating.
    — Joey Skladany, Travel + Leisure, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of rude
Verb
  • This allowed Joby to operate under an FAA Experimental Airworthiness Certificate (Research & Development) while proving that its autonomy technology can be retrofitted onto conventional, pre-certified airframes.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Florida has committed at least $230 million in state contracts from its disaster fund to retrofit and run the former Baker County prison as an immigration detention facility, state contract records reviewed by the Herald/Times show.
    — Claire Heddles, Miami Herald, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of retrofitted
Adjective
  • The legal arguments for such claims, however, are extremely flawed and would likely not hold up in the court, said David Loy, the legal director for the nonpartisan First Amendment Coalition.
    — Mathew Miranda, Sacbee.com, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Dandekar accuses the World Bank of producing a flawed risk assessment report for the project from the get-go.
    — Mamita Bhandari, NPR, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of flawed
Verb
  • Costume designer Colleen Atwood devised the ensemble, while Ed Cubberly created the famous fiberglass muzzle, deliberately leaving it uncoated to evoke the look of dried, taut skin.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026
  • However, a potential workaround for this was famously devised in 1994 by physicist Miguel Alcubierre, who argued that rather than using a propulsion system to accelerate the spacecraft itself, spacetime could be distorted around it.
    — Micah Hanks, Space.com, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of devised
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

jerry-builds
jerry-built
jerry-rigged
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Cite this Entry

“Jerry-built.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/jerry-built. Accessed 3 Oct. 2026.

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