Definition of Makeshift

makeshift (noun) - something contrived to meet an urgent need or emergency

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How can makeshift be used in a sentence?

  1. Several women came into the makeshift office and wept.

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  2. 'So, you see, I'm only a kind of makeshift,' she remarked.

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  3. The boys have checked the flood with a kind of makeshift dam.

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  4. His kitchen became a makeshift headquarters for four candidates.

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  5. There was just a kind of makeshift ferry, a few small boats going back and forth.

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  6. Abandoned, dilapidated, what some would call makeshift homes line parts of the street.

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  7. The poorer classes were scantily clad in every kind of makeshift garment, ofttimes in rags.

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  8. The disaster made 1.3 million people homeless, many of whom are still living in makeshift shelters.

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  9. The families are living here in makeshift wooden shelters, with straw mats hung over the top as a roof.

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  10. And there are many villages and just kind of makeshift homes that are staggered throughout these mountains.

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  11. The men started to fight and one of them stabbed the victim with what police described as a makeshift knife.

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  12. It looks to me like these guys were trying to use the crop duster for some kind of makeshift chemical weapon.

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  13. "makeshift" lighting rig fell on the buggy of a baby girl and her older brother at a children's music concert.

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  14. Howard K. Stern hand in hand, arm in arm with, I guess, lawyers in some kind of makeshift security battalion here.

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  15. Indeed, even the TamilNet claims about this, and the Udaiyaarkadu hospital, refer to them as 'makeshift' hospitals.

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  16. Two had been simple wooden lean-tos'the kind of makeshift dwellings that followed the festivals from Hylo to Balifor.

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  17. I guess that looks like a lot of other places we have been seeing, kind of makeshift hospitals and tents being set up.

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  18. Some called the makeshift hotlines already set up to help family and friends deal with traumatized victims and their classmates.

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  19. She let her clothes lie where she shed them, until the floor was covered with a patchwork of fabrics, a kind of makeshift carpet.

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  20. The cheerful noise came from the direction of the cuartel, which is a kind of makeshift barracks for the soldiers of the republic.

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  21. If they were on their own means in some kind of makeshift boat, of course, you would assume that their condition would be a lot worse.

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  22. Here they eke out a hand-to-mouth existence in makeshift settlements around the water desalination plants that the government has set up.

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  23. Evictions, police brutality, abominal crimes: This is the kind of makeshift republic the imperialist intervention left for us in our fatherland.

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  24. Although the built-in highpass filter can help, you will want to devise some kind of makeshift windscreen, as the recorder does not come with one.

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  25. And olfactory offenses can and often include the serial perfumer, usually the elderly lady who bathes in rose or lilac scented makeshift nerve gas.

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  26. We can expect to see many more people throughout the day going to those locations, perhaps placing flowers, putting up some kind of makeshift memorials.

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  27. Several million residents live in makeshift boats, floating slums without electricity or potable water that fester with crime, disease, and prostitution.

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  28. (Soundbite of river) GARRELS: For six months, when the river isn't frozen, they live in makeshift tents on the Volga shore, smoking their fish over a wood fire.

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  29. The entire flat consisted of a single room with a curtain setting off the first five or six feet from the rest and therefore forming a kind of makeshift anteroom.

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  30. PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 22, 2010 (IPS) - Some 1.3 million people have lived in makeshift camps throughout Port-au-Prince since the January earthquake devastated the city.

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  31. After the death of his ex-wife, Emiliano's daughter Marina (Monalisa Arias) has come to Spain, where she finds her father's house filled with a kind of makeshift family.

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  32. It means that I will be required to go through the whole-body scanner that checks for hidden bombs or makeshift weapons at airports in the United Kingdom and in Amsterdam.

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  33. I've had 2 dreams a few nights ago and in both of them I lost my trousers at school and had to walk around with my denim jacket tied around my waist in a kind of makeshift skirt.

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  34. We pass people being carried on all kind of makeshift stretchers, doors, blankets or whatever they can get their hands on to carry their loved ones to medical facilities for help.

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  35. Argueta contrasts these accounts with those dragged into the raid's aftermath - a massive operation where workers were tried ten-at-a-time in makeshift courtrooms at a cattle fairground.

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  36. University, it seems to me that in thus taking counsel of their fears, the proponents of what I have ventured to call makeshift or compromise measures are courting the very danger they dread.

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  37. Keen eyes will notice he's also remixed Michael Jackson and other pop culture, and these videos are his popular by far, a kind of makeshift practice leading up to the stars-aligned "Rap Chop".

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  38. "makeshift" as food for caterpillars before the mulberry leaves come out, just to save them from starvation; but the latter is their natural and proper food, and yours are probably dying from want of them.

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  39. From the window, instead of people going off to work and school, there was a stream of people going the other way, toward Hampstead Heath, wrapped in all their wintriest clothes carrying every kind of makeshift sledge.

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  40. We weren't a particular audience in a particular club in London, but rather a kind of makeshift template for the ideal audience, while U2 themselves were not this particular band from Dublin, but a makeshift template for the ideal band.

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  41. In July, a CNN investigation revealed that since the quake that left thousands of children orphaned and up to 1.5 million people living on the streets and in makeshift camps, much of the aid promised to the country has yet to be delivered.

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  42. BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this video and the set of stills we're getting in fascinating, chilling at the same time, a Mexican Navy helicopter hovering over what is called a makeshift submarine believed to be used by drug runners.

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  43. The report, "Stateless and Starving: Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh," also called the makeshift camps for unregistered refugees "open-air prisons" where children face severe malnutrition due to a lack of food aid and restricted movement outside of camps.

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  44. His summons was answered by the appearance of a man in shirt-sleeves, whose rumpled head indicated that he had recently risen from some kind of makeshift repose; to him the night-clerk tossed a key, with the brief comment, "Ninety-seven;" and the man, after a sleepy glance at Woburn, turned on his heel and lounged toward the staircase at the back of the corridor.

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  45. In 1911, heartily sick of living in makeshift accomodations at Wake Robin, and seeing that the Wolf House would not be completed for at least another two years, he made a move that brought him the happiest and richest years of his life: he bought the twelve acres in the middle of the Kholer vineyards upon which stood an abandoned winery, a broken-down ranch house, and some barns.

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  46. In June 1911, Jack London heartily sick of living in makeshift accomodations at Wake Robin, and seeing that the Wolf House would not be completed for at least another two years, made a move that brought him the happiest and richest years of his life; he bought ten acres in the middle of the Kohler vineyards upon which stood an abandoned winery, a broken-down ranch house, and some barns.

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Tips for Using makeshift in a Sentence

You may have an easier time writing sentences with makeshift if you know what words are likely to come before or after it, or simply what words are often found in the same sentence.

Frequent Predecessors

Words that often come before makeshift in sentences. For example: "a makeshift" or "the makeshift"

  • a
  • the
  • in
  • and
  • of
  • his
  • their
  • this
  • with
  • on

Frequent Successors

Words that often come after makeshift in sentences. For example: "makeshift ." or "makeshift bed"

  • .
  • bed
  • and
  • stage
  • shelters
  • hospital
  • table
  • of
  • for
  • arrangements

Associated Words

Words that aren't necessarily predecessors or successors, but are often found in the same sentence.

  • morgue
  • raft
  • rafts
  • tents
  • opener
  • stalls
  • tent
  • shelter
  • bamboo
  • rope

Alternate Definitions

  • makeshift (noun) - a shifty person; one given to shifts or expedients; a mischievous fellow
  • makeshift (noun) - that with which one makes shift; an expedient adopted to serve a present need or turn; a temporary substitute
  • makeshift (noun) - that with which one makes shift; a temporary expedient, with implication of inferiority to the more usual object or means
A sentence using makeshift