Jerry-built

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Built cheaply and shoddily.

    "1832, Liverpool Mercury, ‘…members of the Bluebell Club, the Jerry-Building society, &c…’ (via https://theprioryandthecastironshore.wordpress.com/2017/07/06/jerry-builder-origin-of-the-term/)"

Adjective
  1. 1
    badly or hastily built wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
breakablebrittlecrumblydaintydelicateeffeminate

Example

More examples

"Some lawn equipment is loaded into the jerry-built cart."

Etymology

Unknown; there are many theories.

Related phrases

jerry-rigged

More for "jerry-built"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.