jury-rig
Americannoun
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Nautical. a temporary rig to replace a permanent rig that has been disabled, lost overboard, etc.
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any makeshift arrangement of machinery or the like.
verb (used with object)
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to assemble quickly or from whatever is at hand, especially for temporary use.
to jury-rig stage lights using automobile headlights.
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Nautical. to replace (a rudder, mast, etc.) with a jury-rig.
We jury-rigged a fore-topmast after the storm had snapped ours off.
Etymology
Origin of jury-rig
First recorded in 1840–50; jury 2 ( def. ) + rig ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Taylor plays Inez, a young Harlem fast talker who decides to jury-rig a family by any means necessary.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 31, 2023
Then again, Belters jury-rig everything, so I suppose it’s not too surprising they carelessly bound this macro.
From The Verge ● Jan. 13, 2022
Listen to a season while you jury-rig face masks or sanitize groceries.
From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2020
On an oceanographic expedition, microbial ecologist Leila Hamdan, currently at the University of Southern Mississippi, recalls having to jury-rig a survival suit with bungee cords.
From Slate ● Mar. 27, 2019
He could jury-rig the Archimedes sphere into some sort of flying device, maybe, but only if he had his tool belt—which he didn’t.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
Yet now, without any justification, the supermajority has imported Callais’ jury-rigged standards into the constitutional rules against racial gerrymandering.
From Slate ● Jun. 3, 2026
I jury-rigged a heating element for our Kenmore refrigerator’s balky ice-maker water-feed tube.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
Ultimately the league canceled it altogether, which required jury-rigged adjustments to the playoff structure.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2023
Nearby, other creations by Graves — part jury-rigged home science experiments, part occultist altars — included religious figurines, medical models, electrical audio gizmos, and tangles of wires and pipes.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2022
Everyone in the neighborhood was so full of their own cleverness at having jury-rigged a solution to the Tap-Out.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Because of a global shortage of large gas turbines, Mr. Musk’s xAI and some companies are jury-rigging gas plants by installing clusters of small turbines and even retrofitting old jet engines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
Amid those punishing strikes, Ukraine scrambled to stay ahead of mounting damage, with repair crews working around the clock and under fire, desperately jury-rigging old equipment and rationing precious power.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2023
Most are jury-rigging plans to educate online, some entirely.
From New York Times ● Jul. 10, 2020
The author Charles Fishman shared anecdotes from his book “One Giant Leap,” including a story about the Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972 jury-rigging a fender on the lunar rover using laminated maps and duct tape.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 21, 2019
At least that jury-rigging will be NASA's job to work out, not mine.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
