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

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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
  • Such episodes now look like clumsy moments in a decade of dissembling.
    — Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker, 30 Aug. 2026
  • Yirenki’s challenge on Christos Tzolis is clumsy, but well short of a first yellow card, let alone a second.
    — Graham Scott, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of clumsy
Verb
  • During an El Niño cycle in 1983, waves collapsed the landmark Seal Beach Pier, which has since been rebuilt.
    — Grace Toohey, Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2026
  • But the team rebuilt, welcoming customers back several months later.
    — Tanasia Kenney, Charlotte Observer, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of rebuilt
Adjective
  • His rough exterior and no-nonsense approach tend to typecast him as a football machine devoid of personality or emotion.
    — Colton Pouncy, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Mercury's rough surface, continually reshaped by debris hurled from impact craters, may have hidden the true extent of the loss, according to the researchers whose findings appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of rough
Verb
  • Not everything about the soundtrack could be fully reconstructed.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 8 Sep. 2026
  • In a quiet corner of the Javits Center, Fanatics reconstructed Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club at scale.
    — Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of reconstructed
Adjective
  • For instance, your colleagues may be very agreeable and kind to their boss but rude to their more junior colleagues, or the cafeteria waiter.
    — Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2026
  • Totally ignoring the humanity of both worker and customer is rude, and yet both parties are interested in getting on with whatever the transaction is.
    — Judith Martin, Mercury News, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of rude
Verb
  • Additionally, external protectors can be retrofitted onto individual chain links.
    — IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Spectrum, 3 Sep. 2026
  • American Airlines retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER Premium Economy section.
    — Michele Luhn, CNBC, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of retrofitted
Adjective
  • And yet, when Szumowska and Englert portray Fyodor’s reaction to the couple’s pregnancy, the birth of their child, and a subsequent tragedy, Anna’s adoration for this utterly flawed man almost feels justified.
    — Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 5 Sep. 2026
  • But the diagnosis dominating today’s political discourse is fundamentally flawed.
    — Norbert J. Michel, Washington Post, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of flawed
Verb
  • Davis’s Friday ruling means the government must now disclose who devised the fund’s structure, but the information will not necessarily be made available to the public.
    — Claire Carter, The Washington Examiner, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Engineers devised a lower-thrust trajectory that saved BepiColombo's mission but delayed its Mercury arrival from December 2025 to November 2026.
    — Josh Dinner, Space.com, 3 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 12 Sep. 2026.

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