dilapidate

English edit

WOTD – 31 January 2009

Etymology edit

From Latin dilapidātus, past participle of dilapidō (“I destroy with stones”), from dis- (“intensifier”) + lapidō (“I stone”), from lapis (“stone”).

Pronunciation edit

(UK, US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈlæp.ɪ.deɪt/, /dəˈlæp.ə.deɪt/
Audio (US) (file)

Verb edit

dilapidate (third-person singular simple present dilapidates, present participle dilapidating, simple past and past participle dilapidated)

(transitive) To cause to become ruined or put into disrepair.
- 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
  If the bishop, parson, or vicar, etc., dilapidates the buildings, or cuts down the timber of the patrimony […]
- 1883, George Bernard Shaw, chapter VI, in An Unsocial Socialist:
  In the last days of autumn he had whitewashed the chalet, painted the doors, windows, and veranda, repaired the roof and interior, and improved the place so much that the landlord had warned him that the rent would be raised at the expiration of his twelvemonth's tenancy, remarking that a tenant could not reasonably expect to have a pretty, rain-tight dwelling-house for the same money as a hardly habitable ruin. Smilash had immediately promised to dilapidate it to its former state at the end of the year.
(transitive, figurative) To squander or waste.
- 1692, Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses:
  The patrimony of the bishopric of Oxon was much dilapidated.
(intransitive, archaic) To fall into ruin or disuse.