Meaning of jerrybuild | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To assemble a project in a hasty, sloppy manner, especially using cheap, inferior or improvised materials.
   transitive
2. To assemble a structure in such an unsafe manner that it is doomed to collapse.
3. To repair a structure in a sloppy or unsafe manner.

Examples

“It was a queer-looking hovel, built of galvanised iron⟳ and kerosene-cans and bark and saplings and bamboo, according to no definite plan⟳, and obviously, to knowing eyes, by one of those masters of the craft of jerry-building […]”

“If we look⟳ at some of the stories of R. D. Laing's patients in The Politics of Experience⟳ it looks as if schizophrenia jerrybuilds a shaky structure⟳ of passion and freedom which depends for existence on negation of control⟳ and conscious scruple.”

“Evolution, for example, isn't rational—and it jerry-builds our bodies.”

“Little wonder⟳ that corners were cut⟳, bad materials made do for good and jerry-building was one of the curses of the age.”

CEFR level