DILAPIDATE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does dilapidate mean? 

• DILAPIDATE (verb)
  The verb DILAPIDATE has 2 senses:

1. bring into a condition of decay or partial ruin by neglect or misuse

2. fall into decay or ruin

  Familiarity information: DILAPIDATE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DILAPIDATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they dilapidate    ... he / she / it dilapidates   
Past simple: dilapidated   
Past participle: dilapidated   
-ing form: dilapidating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bring into a condition of decay or partial ruin by neglect or misuse

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "dilapidate" is one way to...):

destroy; destruct (do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

dilapidation (the process of becoming dilapidated)

dilapidation (a state of deterioration due to old age or long use)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fall into decay or ruin

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

crumble; decay; dilapidate

Context example:

The unoccupied house started to decay

Hypernyms (to "dilapidate" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dilapidate"):

deteriorate (become worse or disintegrate)

corrode; rust (become destroyed by water, air, or a corrosive such as an acid)

weather (change under the action or influence of the weather)

eat at; erode; gnaw; gnaw at; wear away (become ground down or deteriorate)

droop; wilt (become limp)

ruin (fall into ruin)

break; bust; fall apart; wear; wear out (go to pieces)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

She was a little dilapidated—like a house—with having been so long to let; yet had, as I have said, an appearance of good looks.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was this sketch-book, which was as dilapidated then as you see it now.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The fact that a somewhat dilapidated blue one remained stationary above the unprotected bonnet attracted her attention, and looking up, she saw Mr. Bhaer looking down.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She was patching a pair of his trousers, while his lean body was distributed over two chairs, his feet dangling in dilapidated carpet-slippers over the edge of the second chair.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I read to him the notes which I had made at the time, and which I inscribe here:—At Purfleet, on a by-road, I came across just such a place as seemed to be required, and where was displayed a dilapidated notice that the place was for sale.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

There was, and is when I write, at the end of that low-lying street, a dilapidated little wooden building, probably an obsolete old ferry-house.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"Why do you always avoid Mr. Tudor?" asked Amy, wisely refraining from any comment upon Jo's dilapidated appearance.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It is nothing smaller than the Crocodile Book, which is in rather a dilapidated condition by this time, with divers of the leaves torn and stitched across, but which Peggotty exhibits to the children as a precious relic.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I wish I hadn't smashed my coral bracelet, for you might have had it, said Jo, who loved to give and lend, but whose possessions were usually too dilapidated to be of much use.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Here Meg meant to have a fountain, shrubbery, and a profusion of lovely flowers, though just at present the fountain was represented by a weather-beaten urn, very like a dilapidated slopbowl, the shrubbery consisted of several young larches, undecided whether to live or die, and the profusion of flowers was merely hinted by regiments of sticks to show where seeds were planted.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)