Meaning & use
jury-rig
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Meanings
verbtransitiveinformal
To put together or repair something quickly and roughly using whatever materials are available.
Grammar: Takes an object: he jury-rigged a shelter.
Patterns
- jury-rig something from something
- jury-rig something to do something
The campers jury-rigged a shelter from tarps and branches.
He jury-rigged a stand for the lamp using a stack of books.
We had to jury-rig a cable to get the speakers working.
adjectivebefore a nouninformal
Made or fixed in a quick, makeshift way, and usually not meant to last.
Grammar: Comes before the noun: a jury-rig repair.
Patterns
- a jury-rig fix
- a jury-rig solution
The sailors made a jury-rig mast out of a spare pole.
His jury-rig repair held until we reached a garage.
They lived with a jury-rig heating system all winter.
Word forms
| third person singular | jury-rigs |
|---|---|
| past tense | jury-rigged |
| past participle | jury-rigged |
| -ing form | jury-rigging |
Common combinations
- jury-rig a repair
- She jury-rigged a repair with duct tape.
- jury-rig a solution
- The engineers jury-rigged a solution overnight.
- jury-rig a shelter
- Hikers jury-rigged a shelter when the storm hit.
- jury-rig something together
- He jury-rigged the antenna together from coat hangers.
- a jury-rigged device
- A jury-rigged device kept the engine running.
Synonyms and how they differ
- improvise
- Improvise is wider and can mean making anything up on the spot, while jury-rig is about building or fixing a physical object.
- patch up
- Patch up suggests mending something damaged, but jury-rig can also mean building something new from odds and ends.
- cobble together
- Cobble together stresses joining mismatched pieces, while jury-rig stresses the quick temporary fix.
- rig up
- Rig up is plainer and can be sturdy, while jury-rig always sounds makeshift.
Opposites
Word family
- jury-rigged adjective
- made in a makeshift way
- jury mast noun
- an emergency mast on a ship, the origin of the term
- jerry-rig verb
- a blended variant of jury-rig and jerry-built
- rig verb
- to set up or fit equipment
Commonly confused: jury-rig or rig (an election)? jury-rig or jerry-built?
jury-rig vs rig (an election)
To rig an election means to cheat to control the result; jury-rig is only about quick makeshift building and has nothing to do with juries or cheating.
jury-rig vs jerry-built
Jerry-built means badly and cheaply constructed, usually of buildings, while jury-rigged means improvised in an emergency.
Practice
The crew had no spare part, so they ______ a fix from wire and tape.
Choose one answer.
Jury-rigged means improvised a quick repair from whatever was at hand. The other verbs do not make sense with a fix made from wire and tape.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “jury-rig”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.