Bodge

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /bɒdʒ/

Definitions

1. To carry out a repair or construction in a rough, clumsy, or improvised way that lacks quality ; to complete a task hastily and without proper care or precision
2. To fix or assemble something badly with inadequate skill or materials ; to perform work or a job in a rushed and sloppy manner
3. To patch up or mend in a shoddy, makeshift fashion ; to handle an activity quickly but carelessly, often resulting in poor outcomes

Etymology: The most striking thing about "bodge" is how little anyone agrees on where it came from. Its likeliest ancestor is the Middle English "bocchen," meaning to mend or patch up, but that word's own origin is uncertain, with candidates ranging from Middle Dutch "botsen" ("to repair, patch") to Old English "bōtian" ("to get better"). The verb's rough-and-ready sense of repair fits neatly with those roots. The most colourful theory links it to the woodland trade. Chair-makers in the Chilterns once depended on bodgers, rough craftsmen who turned chair legs in the woods and carried the unfinished parts out to be finished by others. An Oxford dictionary supplement of 1972 records "bodger" as a Buckinghamshire dialect word for exactly this chair-leg turner, though the link between that trade and the verb is not proven. Another proposal, from 1879, suggests "bodger" was a corruption of "badger," because the woodland workers, like badgers, kept to the trees and rarely came out until evening. Such a tidy story is hard to prove, so it remains a guess.

Synonyms: mend, fix, repair, improvise, fumble

Antonyms: ruin, break, destroy, disassemble, dismantle