jury-rig

present singular third person jury-rigs · participle present jury-rigging · participle past jury-rigged · past jury-rigged · alternative jury rig · alternative jerry-rig

1. transitivenauticalTo build an improvised rigging or assembly from whichever materials are available.

   The next day it moderated, and the day after the weather was quite fine, and the sea had gone down. We recovered our spirits, the more so as we heard no more of the cat; and having jury-rigged her aft, we steered our course with a light breeze.

   1840, [Frederick] Marryat, Poor Jack. […], London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC

2. transitiveTo create a makeshift, ad hoc solution from resources at hand.

   In fact, he and his friends had kicked the idea around on the "Black Ice" board, much as they had discussed many other nifty notions, such as building personal flame-throwers and jury-rigging fistfulls of blasting-caps.

   1992, Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown […] , Bantam Books, →ISBN

   1 more example

   Tech behemoths are jury-rigging AI features into their products to avoid being disrupted—but these rollouts, and Apple’s in particular, have been disastrous, giving dangerous health advice, butchering news summaries, and generally crowding and slowing user experiences.

   2025 May 22, Matteo Wong, “OpenAI’s Ambitions Just Became Crystal Clear”, in The Atlantic

   Synonyms: jerrybuild, kludge out, MacGyver

plural jury-rigs · alternative jury rig · alternative jerry-rig

1. nauticalAn improvised rigging.

   […] the sickly, disheartening feeling which the men of some “overdue” ships that come into harbour at last under a jury-rig must have felt, combated, and overcome in the faithful discharge of their duty.

   1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC

present singular third person jury-rigs · participle present jury-rigging · participle past jury-rigged · past jury-rigged · alternative jury rig · alternative jerry-rig

1. slangtransitiveTo rig a jury; to engage in jury tampering, to improperly influence jurors, or the selection of jurors, such that they deliver a certain verdict.