broken-down

1. 1.

   in deplorable condition

   “a street of bedraggled tenements”

   “a broken-down fence”

   “a ramshackle old pier”

   “a tumble-down shack”

   Synonymsbedraggledderelictdilapidatedramshackletatterdemaliontumble-down

   Similardamaged
2. 2.

   not in working order

   “had to push the broken-down car”

   “a broken-down tractor fit only for children to play on”

   Similarunserviceable

Questions about broken-down

What does broken-down mean?

broken-down means "in deplorable condition". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in broken-down?

broken-down has 3 syllables: bro-ken--down. The stress falls on "bro".

What is another word for broken-down?

Close synonyms include bedraggled, derelict, dilapidated, ramshackle, tatterdemalion. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is broken-down a common word?

broken-down is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.