Crossword clues for dilapidate
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dilapidate \Di*lap"i*date\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dilapidated; p. pr. & vb. n. Dilapidating.] [L. dilapidare to scatter like stones; di- = dis- + lapidare to throw stones, fr. lapis a stone. See Lapidary.]
-
To bring into a condition of decay or partial ruin, by misuse or through neglect; to destroy the fairness and good condition of; -- said of a building.
If the bishop, parson, or vicar, etc., dilapidates the buildings, or cuts down the timber of the patrimony.
--Blackstone. -
To impair by waste and abuse; to squander.
The patrimony of the bishopric of Oxon was much dilapidated.
--Wood.
Dilapidate \Di*lap"i*date\, v. i.
To get out of repair; to fall into partial ruin; to become
decayed; as, the church was suffered to dilapidate.
--Johnson.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1560s, "to bring a building to ruin," from Latin dilapidatus, past participle of dilapidare "to squander, waste," originally "to throw stones, scatter like stones;" see dilapidation. Perhaps the English word is a back-formation from dilapidation.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 To fall into ruin or disuse. 2 To cause to become ruined or put into disrepair. 3 (context figuratively English) To squander or waste.
WordNet
v. bring into a condition of decay or partial ruin by neglect or misuse
Usage examples of "dilapidate".
FELLOW-CITIZENS:--When the General Assembly, now about adjourning, assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state of the public treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every department of society, the dilapidated state of the public works, and the impending danger of the degradation of the State, you had a right to expect that your representatives would lose no time in devising and adopting measures to avert threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of the people, and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future prosperity of the State.
Number 47 was on the fifth floor, a commonplace room with an iron bed, a washbasin, a bidet, a dilapidated armchair, and a chest of drawers.
Yossarian argued in a vain effort to cheer up the glum, barrel-chested Indian, whose well-knit sorrel-red face had degenerated rapidly into a dilapidated, calcareous gray.
In the plaza a dozen white dolomite statues, now more or less dilapidated, cast stark black shadows away from the wan red sunlight.
He had started walking with Doc toward the dilapidated jitney that belonged to Yukon, obviously hopeful of a ride home.
Quartered in a dilapidated hideout, his one lone mobsman listening and nodding, Marty Lunk was vowing vengeance.
Shada said, pointing toward a dilapidated building across the sandy Mos Eisley street and double-checking her datapad.
Rose stumbled over the concrete threshold and found herself in a dilapidated museum, long since gone to seed with the collapse of the tourist trade in nesh reconstructions of ancient sites.
Leo Kritzky to a radiator as a bicycle bell reverberated through a dilapidated wooden hulk of a building to remind everyone that coffee and doughnuts were available in the hallway.
The daidokoro had a large wood fire burning in a trench, filling the whole place with stinging smoke, from which my room, which was merely screened off by some dilapidated shoji, was not exempt.
He occupied a roomy dilapidated garret, au sixieme, in the Rue Tire-Liard, with a trucklebed and a pianoforte for furniture, and very little else.
But I have barkened to you since ye entered my dilapidated manse, and I wot ye speak Novarian as do those bom to the Twelve Nations.
The dilapidated buildings look like sets built for a Blaxploitation flick from the seventies, like you could walk up and push them down with your foot.
The dilapidated wagon had fallen to pieces in midstream, bits of wood and precious bundles of produce floating away as the master wallowed helplessly.
Dust had stirred mustily beneath her bare feet, had coated the disused junk and dilapidated boxes piled between and among the pillars, and had fogged the distant glow of a yellow flame that she was following to its source, a little tallow-dip lamp burning beside the dark sweep of a red porphyry Stair.