Word.ws English Dictionary

jerry-build

jerry-build is the alternative form of jerrybuild.

Meaning of jerrybuild

Verb

jerrybuild (third-person singular simple present jerrybuilds, present participle jerrybuilding, simple past and past participle jerrybuilt)

  1. (transitive) To assemble a project in a hasty, sloppy manner, especially using cheap, inferior or improvised materials.
    • It was a queer-looking hovel, built of galvanised iron and kerosene-cans and bark and saplings and bamboo, according to no definite plan, and obviously, to knowing eyes, by one of those masters of the craft of jerry-building […]1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, pages 154–5
  2. To assemble a structure in such an unsafe manner that it is doomed to collapse.
  3. To repair a structure in a sloppy or unsafe manner.

Forms of jerry-build

third-person singular presentjerry-builds
present participlejerry-building
past participlejerry-built
pastjerry-built

Questions about jerry-build

What is jerry-build the alternative form of?
Jerry-build is the alternative form of jerrybuild.

Words near jerry-build in the dictionary

  1. Jerry Lynch
  2. Jerry Sneak
  3. Jerry Sneaks
  4. jerry to
  5. Jerry World
  6. jerry-build
  7. jerry-builder
  8. jerry-builders
  9. jerry-building
  10. jerry-builds
  11. jerry-built

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jerry-build (page history and authors); jerrybuild (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “jerry-build.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jerry-build. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.