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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

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
  • The mistake leaders make is concluding that the person who looks uncertain or clumsy must have been the wrong choice.
    — Monica Cutia, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2026
  • The second trickier and clumsier aside happens when Banderas’ chef tells Tony the tragedy of 17th century French cook François Vatel, who literally fell on his sword before serving a banquet to Louis XIV.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2026
Definition of clumsy
Verb
  • Another ground that’s been totally rebuilt over the last 30 or so years, The Hawthorns carries a grandeur to go with an atmosphere that always makes a visit feel like an event.
    — Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 13 Aug. 2026
  • The downtown hotel is a smart base for business at the Texas State Capitol and future events at the Austin Convention Center, currently being rebuilt for an early-2029 reopening.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of rebuilt
Adjective
  • While the exact timing and intensity of the impacts are still uncertain and will ultimately depend on how close Lala tracks to the Hawaiian islands, heavy rain, strong winds and rough surf impacts are likely this weekend.
    — Megan Fahrney, ABC News, 14 Aug. 2026
  • More recently, a rolling cast of content creators has taken to making day trips to Blackpool’s roughest wards to capitalize on the environs of its impoverished communities.
    — George Francis Lee, New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of rough
Verb
  • Every connected device, cloud service, AI platform, collaboration tool and third-party integration increases the number of places where sensitive information can be observed, collected or reconstructed.
    — Erik Wittreich, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Songs were deconstructed and reconstructed each night as the pair hunched over their blinking arrays.
    — Will Pritchard, Pitchfork, 8 Aug. 2026
Definition of reconstructed
Adjective
  • Then off to the highway with you, up a mountain hill, in full control and at one with this rude, loud, hot machine.
    — Josh Max, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Maybe your child or grandchild posted a rude comment in a group chat.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 9 Aug. 2026
Definition of rude
Verb
  • The weapons are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with guidance systems and can carry up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of explosives, leaving huge craters.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 Aug. 2026
  • For marketers, this means trust cannot be retrofitted after automation grows.
    — Hope Frank, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026
Definition of retrofitted
Adjective
  • Here agents were built to find software exploits and placed in flawed or deliberately permissive environments.
    — Chris Stokel-Walker, Scientific American, 7 Aug. 2026
  • Every output the system produces from ambiguous or stale inputs becomes a decision someone makes in good faith on a flawed premise.
    — Leon Gordon, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of flawed
Verb
  • Advertisement As Claude began completing such tasks too reliably to reveal much, Freeman devised a test closer to the messiness of the real world.
    — Harry Booth, Time, 7 Aug. 2026
  • What subterfuge has the author devised within a sentence, and what chills of humor or irony will run across its surface as the subterfuge is discovered?
    — Sabrina Jaszi, The Dial, 4 Aug. 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
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Jerry-built.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/jerry-built. Accessed 14 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of vacuous

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Words of the Week - Aug. 14

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
image of a green cube out of place in a lineup of red spheres
Odd Word Out: Synonyms Vol. 2 Quiz Figure out which word isn't like the others.
See All