Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Weakened, worn out, impaired, or broken down by old age, illness, or hard use. synonym: weak.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Broken down in health, physical or mental, especially from age; wasted or worn by infirmities; weakened, especially by age.
- In geology, said of rivers that have reached the last stages of their existence, or of that portion of a drainage-course which has reached base-level and where deposition along the bed exceeds the amount removed by floods.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Broken down with age; wasted and enfeebled by the infirmities of old age; feeble; worn out.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Weakened or worn out from age or wear
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective lacking bodily or muscular strength or vitality
- adjective worn and broken down by hard use
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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An American family of eight has gone missing while driving from Michigan to Alaska and police believe they may be somewhere in northern B.C. Several families with loved ones who are mentally ill are speaking out about what they call a decrepit, overcrowded, ineffective psychiatric facility at Vancouver General Hospital.
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Several families with loved ones who are mentally ill are speaking out about what they call a decrepit, overcrowded, ineffective psychiatric facility at Vancouver General Hospital.
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Several families with loved ones who are mentally ill are speaking out about what they call a decrepit, overcrowded, ineffective psychiatric facility at Vancouver General Hospital.
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In this city, so many beat cops troll along at a snail's pace in decrepit squad cars.
Graffiti: Mexico City's wall art emerges from the shadows 2009
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Located in decrepit strip malls, strewn with broken glass outside, parents walked their toddlers into these small, overheated spaces.
Mimi Carter: Rhee Got Results, but Will They Last? Mimi Carter 2010
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In this city, so many beat cops troll along at a snail's pace in decrepit squad cars.
Graffiti: Mexico City's wall art emerges from the shadows 2009
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The earth had yielded of her fruits and now rested from her labour, worn and spent, taking no thought of comeliness, but waiting in decrepit indifference for her friend, the North Wind, to bring down the swirling snow to hide her scars and heal her unloveliness with its kindly white mantle.
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It was falling down in decrepit shape, and since it was within a few feet from both their house and their other neighbors’ house, there was a real risk that it could take out a wall of a home if/when it collapsed.
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Working closely with indie labels, bands did the dirty work of booking their own tours and driving in decrepit vans and sleeping on floors and in parking lots – hammering out a vibrant (and, yes, highly flawed) new underground culture where one didn’t exist before.
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The roller skates themselves are neither pristine nor completely decrepit, which is common for skating facilities, while the choice between traditional roller skates and modern inline skates will drastically affect the quality of the skating experience.
Paly Voice 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word decrepit
Useful for describing anciented cows.
August 21, 2008
100001016886860 commented on the word decrepit
Very weak: John was very decrepit after his surgery.(Newbury house dic.)
October 30, 2010
bilby commented on the word decrepit
Wasn't aware of the hydrology usage.
January 9, 2020