ˈjerry-ˈbuilt, a.
[See prec.]
Built unsubstantially of bad materials; built to sell but not to last. Also fig.
| 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Jerry-built, slightly, or unsubstantially built. 1875 Ruskin Fors Clav. V. 263 Rows of jerry-built cottages are creeping up. 1900 G. C. Brodrick Mem. & Impr. 316 It would soon be overspread by vulgar jerry-built villas. 1901 Daily Chron. 13 Aug. 3/2 In an age of jerry-built books it is refreshing to come across a volume that has taken forty years to compile. 1903 Ibid. 20 Feb. 3/2 Fiction, he said, was now jerry-built. 1933 J. Baillie And Life Everlasting (1934) i. 15 That great cataclysm undoubtedly came as a rude shock to many jerry-built philosophies of life. |