BROKEN-DOWN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Broken-down

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/brˈoʊkən-daʊn/ Listen

Broken-down

adjective

In deplorable condition. Synonyms: bedraggled, derelict, dilapidated, ramshackle, tatterdemalion, tumble-down. "A broken-down fence" , "A ramshackle old pier" , "A tumble-down shack"

Not in working order. "A broken-down tractor fit only for children to play on"

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Etymology of 'Broken-down'

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"Broken-down" Quotes from Famous Books

... and its sinister notes penetrated likewise into the large guard-house, and spoke to the prisoners confined there. One of these prisoners was a gloomy, broken-down old man, General Kinkel; the other was a youth, mortally wounded and violently delirious. It was Colonel Dittfurt. The bullet of the Tyrolese had not killed him; he still lived, a prisoner of the peasants, and, amidst his delirium and his agony, he was fully conscious ...

— Andreas Hofer • Lousia Muhlbach

... his heart upon it. Go he would; and he begged and pleaded so long that the King was forced to let him go. He gave Boots an old broken-down nag; but Boots did not care a pin for that, he sprang up on his ...

— East O' the Sun and West O' the Moon • Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen

... broken brick steps that Old Meg, the fortune-teller, had her den where through the superstitions of those inhabiting the neighborhood she managed to eke out a miserable existence. The interior of the den was unspeakably filthy. The furniture consisted of a broken-down couch, a chest of drawers in a like condition, a card-table, a few kitchen chairs, and some boxes. Most of the panes in the windows had been broken and the empty spaces had been covered with old newspapers. Consequently, a candle thrust into an old wine-bottle supplied ...

— The Master Mystery • Arthur B. Reeve and John W. Grey

... in the United States Senate in regard to the League of Nations with the consideration of a broken-down car in a roadside garage the contrast is shocking. The rural mechanic thinks scientifically; his only aim is to avail himself of his knowledge of the nature and workings of the car, with a view to making it run once more. The Senator, on the other hand, appears too often to have ...

— The Mind in the Making - The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform • James Harvey Robinson

... to the fire from the left bastion of the town, which completely out-flanked them, and from which the matchlock-men kept pouring in a cool and most destructive fire upon this dense mass with the utmost impunity; while a wide, broken-down doorway in the centre exposed them to a fire from another bastion in their front, if ever they shewed their nose for an instant to see how matters were going on, or to return their fire. Poor fellows! you may guess their situation was anything but pleasant. The consequences ...

— Campaign of the Indus • T.W.E. Holdsworth

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