makeshift
Americannoun
adjective
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of makeshift
First recorded in 1555–65; noun, adj. use of verb phrase make shift
Explanation
If you have to use a garbage can lid as a sled or a set of drapes as a ball gown, then you know what it means to put together a makeshift creation. Something makeshift has been improvised, thrown together with whatever is around. What's interesting about makeshift is the way it can vary in meaning from approval to criticism. Those people trapped on the island in Lost? They came up with some pretty cool makeshift tents and survival ideas. But a government described as makeshift, for example, probably has little going for it.
Vocabulary lists containing makeshift
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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List 1
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A Long Walk to Water
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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.
See Examples For:
That first week, we had a TV and a kind of makeshift conversation pit: a quilt, a mattress, some pillows.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
Some sit under makeshift shelters, others use picks and drills powered by generators.
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
Costs can rack up especially quickly when couples pick unusual venues, which often require temporary structures, makeshift bathrooms or other adjustments to make the proceedings feel seamless.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
Even a swooping hawk couldn’t resist perching on a tree overlooking the makeshift stage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
My makeshift piggy bank has arrived in the nick of time.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Afghan refugee and photographer Abdul Saboor poses for Reuters as he takes pictures in a makeshifts migrant camp in Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk, France, December 4, 2021.
From Reuters ● Dec. 8, 2021
Awkward staging makeshifts had to be employed instead, resulting in hundreds of audience members leaving the theatre every night scratching their heads.
From Slate ● Nov. 29, 2013
These two are not makeshifts but attacking bowlers for turning tracks.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 23, 2011
Until it got them it could only stand by and watch traffic be hamstrung by overnight dashes into sheltered harbors, by limited convoys, by other makeshifts that sadly slowed the pulse of United Nations commerce.
From Time Magazine Archive
But Neale’s bright mind evolved makeshifts for food as well as for other things.
From The Corner House Girls on Palm Island by Gooch, Thelma
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.
