meatball surgery
- noun
- /ˈmiːtˌbɔːl ˈsɜːrdʒəri/
- Informal
:
cirugía chapucera
- After the accident, the paramedic had to perform meatball surgery to stabilize the patient.
Examples
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The doctor performed a quick meatball surgery to save time.
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She joked that the kitchen mishap needed some meatball surgery before dinner could be served.
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In the field hospital, doctors resorted to meatball surgery due to a lack of proper equipment.
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I can't believe they used such a meatball surgery technique!
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The doctor joked that his technique was more akin to meatball surgery than traditional medicine.
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In her training, she often witnessed meatball surgery being performed on accident victims who needed immediate help.
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The hasty repair job was neither careful nor gentle; it was a classic example of meatball surgery.
How Rough
- Specialized
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
meatball + surgery
The phrase combines the concrete noun 'meatball' (a food) with 'surgery' (a medical operation), but its intended meaning relies on a joking/metaphorical use of 'meatball' to signal something crude, clumsy, or hasty. That metaphorical extension is not fully derivable from the literal constituents for a B1 learner without exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrase meatball surgery may come from the image of a cook quickly making a messy meatball, then doing the same rough work in surgery. So, saying meatball surgery means a 'rough' or 'hasty' operation done without much care or neatness.
