Meaning & use

makeshift

adjective·Academic

Serving as a temporary, often improvised substitute when the proper thing is not available.

See it in a sentence

They built a makeshift shelter out of tarps and branches until help arrived.

With no proper table available, we used an old door as a makeshift desk.

A note on using this word

Makeshift emphasizes that a solution was thrown together quickly to meet an urgent need, not designed to last.

Words with a similar meaning

improvisedtemporarystopgap

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

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