Is your house in terrible condition? Does the roof leak? Is it half tumbling down? Congratulations! It's ramshackle — in other words — in terrible condition and barely holding together.
If you think there's a similarity between a place that's been ransacked and a place that's ramshackle, you'd be right. Ramshackle comes from ransackle, an old nineteenth century term for ransack. Although ramshackle is usually intended as a negative term, that's not always the case. Sometimes it can imply a certain cute picturesque quality. Buildings, places, and even some objects such as cars can be considered ramshackle.
