Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A system, especially a computer system, that is constituted of poorly matched elements or of elements originally intended for other applications.
- noun A clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun electronics engineering an improvised
device , usuallycrudely constructed. Typically used to test the validity of a principle before doing a finished design. - noun general any construction or practice, typically inelegant, designed to solve a problem
temporarily orexpediently . - verb to build or use a kludge
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a badly assembled collection of parts hastily assembled to serve some particular purpose (often used to refer to computing systems or software that has been badly put together)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A kludge is a marginal adaptation that compensates for, but does not eliminate fundamental design inefficiencies.
Kludge: The Science? « PurpleSlog – Awesomeness & Modesty Meets Sexy 2008
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G.W. Turner University of Adelaide As an electrical engineer involved with computers, I'm quite familiar with the word kludge [IX, 2].
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When it reached a timeline with different physical laws, a kludge was added to make it operate there.
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In engineering, a kludge is a workaround using unrelated parts cobbled together.
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A sender might agree to fix the problem with a hack or kludge “a kludge is a crock that works,” went one definition, if he had the time.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late Katie Hafner 2001
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For one thing, a separate computer to carry out the switching functions removed the burdensome kludge a kludge is an inelegant solution to a technical problem that could result from adding those functions to the host computer.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late Katie Hafner 2001
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A sender might agree to fix the problem with a hack or kludge “a kludge is a crock that works,” went one definition, if he had the time.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late Katie Hafner 2001
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For one thing, a separate computer to carry out the switching functions removed the burdensome kludge a kludge is an inelegant solution to a technical problem that could result from adding those functions to the host computer.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late Katie Hafner 2001
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A kludge is a term of derision for either hardware or software that is put together awkwardly, like a "lash-up" or a "jury-rig."
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Should I have costly gender reassignment surgery, or simply stick with my OEM equipment and work out some sort of inexpensive "kludge"?
Archive 2010-09-01 BikeSnobNYC 2010
chained_bear commented on the word kludge
‘An ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a distressing whole’ (Granholm); esp. in Computing, a machine, system, or program that has been improvised or ‘bodged’ together; a hastily improvised and poorly thought-out solution to a fault or ‘bug’. (OED online) Hence, kludgemanship.
February 6, 2007
garyth123 commented on the word kludge
see kludge at the jargon file
see kludgie
December 8, 2008