slapdash
Americanadverb
adjective
adverb
adjective
noun
-
slapdash activity or work
-
another name for roughcast
Etymology
Origin of slapdash
Explanation
If you just slapped something together and then dashed when you were done, it was slapdash. The paint job was slapdash: it looked like they did it in an hour, without brushes. The meaning of the word slapdash is clear from its two parts, slap and dash. If you make something in a slapdash way, you slap it together and then dash away — probably so no one would notice. If you want something to look great and last for a long time, then take your time and do it right. If you do it in a slapdash way, you may save time in the short run. But in the long run, you'll lose much more time redoing your shoddy work.
Vocabulary lists containing slapdash
Idioms and Expressions, List 4
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Loser
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Idioms and Expressions, List 4
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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.
Slapdash vagueness undermines this energetic book’s purgatory of female pain.
From New York Times • Jul. 6, 2018
Slapdash lab work is not the same as fabricating data and Harvard has kept mum about the precise nature of the charges, citing concerns about privacy.
From Economist • Aug. 26, 2010
Slapdash pleas are sometimes less brutal than the farcical trials that can result when ill-prepared lawyers are thrown in over their heads.
From Time Magazine Archive
Slapdash development shows: episodes can vary widely in terms of quality.
From Time Magazine Archive
Would Meissonier or Alma Tadema, say, paint your portrait for three napoleons, and would you pay Slapdash, R.A., fifteen thousand for a larger one?
From The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol. 2 by Furniss, Harry
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.
