JERRY-BUILDER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Jerry-builder

... the jerry-builder was a hard nut to crack then as now. As to Nero's edict, New York enacted it for its own protection ...

— The Battle with the Slum • Jacob A. Riis

... Unfortunately, however, we do not believe this. What we believe, or, rather, what we know, is that the attack on Socialism in the Thunderer arises from a chaos of inconsistent and mostly evil motives, any one of which would lose simply by being named. A jerry-builder whose houses have been condemned writes anonymously and becomes the Thunderer. A Socialist who has quarrelled with the other Socialists writes anonymously, and he becomes the Thunderer. A monopolist who has lost his monopoly, and a demagogue who has lost his mob, ...

— All Things Considered • G. K. Chesterton