Broken-down means no longer working and falling apart. A vehicle at the side of a road, or a building nobody has kept up.
It goes before a noun with a hyphen, so a broken-down van or a broken-down old barn. The phrasal verb break down is where it comes from, and it covers machines and people alike. Applied to a person it is unkind and means physically wrecked. Its cousins are worn-out, which is about use, and derelict, which is about abandonment.
1adjectivebroken-downNo longer working and in poor repair.
“A broken-down lorry was blocking the inside lane.”
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 5 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word