makeshift
56
4.8
- adjective
- /ˈmeɪkˌʃɪft/
:
improvisado
- During the storm, we created a makeshift shelter from tarps and branches.
- a makeshift shelter
- a makeshift camp
- a makeshift shack
So what they had done was like makeshift stairs out of risers.
- So what they had done was like makeshift stairs out of risers.
- No, no, I have to walk up those little, like makeshift steps.
- If you go online, they do sell some makeshift essential oil distillery options.
- Private aircraft dropped makeshift gas and nail bombs on the advancing miners but all missed their targets.
- And I was outside in my little makeshift gym and I remember Paul Towers coming to the bars.
Examples
-
While at sea, classes met every other day in makeshift but pleasant classrooms throughout the ship.
Academic text (1990) -
A school several blocks from the embassy is serving as the makeshift landing zone.
-
You, during your term as governor, built a kind of makeshift border wall.
-
No, no, I have to walk up those little, like makeshift steps.
-
And then up here is my makeshift work table that I brought in here with a bunch of different supplies.
-
See that you can use a can as a makeshift grill.
-
The plantation house was also used as a makeshift hospital during the Civil War.
-
The next morning, everyone gathers at a makeshift community shed to serve breakfast to us visiting Americans.
Academic text (2001) -
There was a pallet bed on one side and a makeshift privy on the other.
Fiction book (1993) -
They've put something down on the floor of the plane as a makeshift bed, perhaps some parachutes.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
130
3.6
Serving as a replacement for another person or thing
9
7.0
Made quickly for a specific purpose when needed
5
4.9
Used instead of the real thing
2
7.6
Made quickly from things on hand to work for a short time
1
4.6
Made quickly using what is available
Antonyms
Compounds
How Improvised
- Informal
2
7.6
56
4.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Makeshift comes from combining make ('to create') and shift ('a quick move' or 'a clever trick'), and it describes something made as a 'quick fix' from what you have, often only for a short time.