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
  • But even those fans of her socially clumsy and feverishly party-planning mayor’s assistant Patricia on that series may not be prepared for her soulful, wrenching work in Mike Leigh’s latest film.
    — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 5 Nov. 2026
  • And given how clumsy its efforts have been, this is clearly the leadership of the Department of Justice acceding to the wishes of the president of the United States even when there is no sound legal basis to proceed.
    — John E. Jones III, The Conversation, 4 Nov. 2026
Definition of clumsy
Verb
  • Veterans Park will see two tennis courts fully rebuilt and its basketball courts replaced.
    — Steve Zalusky, Chicago Tribune, 2 Nov. 2026
  • After a three-year closure following a fire, owners Don and Eva Lo rebuilt the original building (once a KFC) into a shiny new space.
    — Allecia Vermillion, Bon Appetit Magazine, 2 Nov. 2026
Definition of rebuilt
Adjective
  • As the Heat searches for positives amid its rough start to the season, the bench rotation continues to evolve.
    — Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 11 Nov. 2026
  • At the Shore, onshore winds could create rough surf, hazardous boating conditions, and some tidal flooding, although the extent of coastal impacts will depend heavily on the storm's track and how long winds remain onshore.
    — Grant Gilmore, CBS News, 10 Nov. 2026
Definition of rough
Verb
  • From his emergence in the mid-1950s until his passing in 2018, Taylor not only disassembled jazz and reconstructed it in his own style, but also found ways to make the world listen.
    — Levi Dayan, Pitchfork, 3 Nov. 2026
  • Does limited roster turnover the season following a championship give a team a leg up over others that were reconstructed year over year?
    — Kyle Wagner, New York Daily News, 2 Nov. 2026
Definition of reconstructed
Adjective
  • Don’t expect Miss Manners ever to issue an OK-to-be-rude pass.
    — Judith Martin, Sun Sentinel, 2 Nov. 2026
  • Rosie Campbell, Managing Director of Eleos AI Research, a nonprofit dedicated to understanding and addressing the potential well-being of AI, said that some other studies have even shown that rude questions can actually improve results.
    — Hadas Gold, CNN Money, 1 Nov. 2026
Definition of rude
Verb
  • Still, the company managed to purchase and retrofit a four-hundred-and-eighty-five-cabin ship that had been built in 1993.
    — Shayla Love, New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2026
  • The building will be gutted to be retrofitted for the HealthLinc clinic.
    — Doug Ross, Chicago Tribune, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of retrofitted
Adjective
  • But the party was wrecked on Election Day not by its flawed attorney general.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Throughout his time in the governor’s office, DeSantis has abused special sessions to force rushed and often deceitful debate (including the two days of meetings that produced the badly flawed Amendment 3 in the first place).
    — Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of flawed
Verb
  • Composers devised elaborate systems for writing music that ventured deep into dissonance, away from the rules of tonality that had governed it for centuries.
    — Andy Cush, Pitchfork, 31 Oct. 2026
  • Kushner, in a fury, devised the salacious revenge plot that has colored his reputation ever since.
    — Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 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 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
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
speech-bubble-untangle
Simplify The Convoluted Expression Quiz A quiz that’s as “uncomplicated as a round de...
See All