Makeshift

How to spell makeshift

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce makeshift

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does makeshift mean?

1. adjectiveServing as a temporary or improvised substitute, made from whatever is available.
2. nounA temporary substitute or expedient used until something better is available.

Makeshift in a sentence

• adjective

  They built a makeshift shelter from tarpaulins and rope.

• noun

  The folded coat was only a makeshift until a proper pillow arrived.

• adjective

  The office set up a makeshift desk in the corridor during the renovation.

• noun

  Using the crate as a stool was a clever makeshift in the empty flat.

Where does makeshift come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word makeshift comes from a much older phrase, 'to make shift', which in the 1500s meant to manage or get by with whatever was available. The verb 'shift' in that era carried the sense of an expedient or a clever contrivance to cope with a difficulty, a meaning that survives faintly in expressions like 'shift for oneself'. By the late sixteenth century 'makeshift' had hardened into a single compound noun for a person who shifts from one stopgap to another, and soon afterward it became the adjective we use today, describing something improvised as a temporary substitute. Both halves are plain native English words of Germanic stock: 'make' from Old English 'macian' and 'shift' from Old English 'sciftan', meaning to arrange or divide. Because the spelling simply joins two familiar words with no silent letters, the only thing to remember is that it is written solid, with no hyphen and no space.

How the word is built

• make (to construct)
• shift (a temporary expedient or makeshift arrangement)