What it means
A bodge job is a rough, make-do repair that technically does the trick, but only just. It’s the kind of fix held together by tape, luck, and blind optimism. It might survive the day, but you wouldn’t bet your fingers, your shelf, or your plumbing on it lasting.
Usage examples
"Who fitted this kitchen, then? Gaz from down the pub. Proper bodge job, innit. Drawer falls out if you look at it, worktop’s gaffer-taped on."
"The plumber did a right bodge job, the leak was back within a week."
"It is a bit of a bodge job, but it will hold until we get the proper part."
"That car repair’s a total bodge job. Bonnet doesn’t shut properly and there’s cable ties doing half the heavy lifting."
"I know it’s a bodge job, mate, but it got the fence standing till we can sort it properly."
Where it comes from
Built on British English bodge, a word for doing something badly or patching it up with whatever bits are nearby. A bodge job has long been the everyday UK way to call a repair or piece of work that sort of functions, even if it looks rough, crooked, and one sneeze away from giving up.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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