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solution (to a problem which is inelegant and improvised) n. kludge

Tuesday, March 23, 2021 by Peter Leave a Comment

The too-short, narrower end [of the tie] cannot reach the loop on the overlong wider end, and the two threaten to go off in separate directions… To compensate, the president resorts to a kludge favored by 8-year-olds forced to dress up for a wedding: Scotch tape. [Photos] clearly show a strip of cellophane tape holding the errant tie end in place. (Richard Thompson Ford, “The Ties That Blind,” The New York Times, 02/17/2017.)

This word, when used in the above sense, can also be a synonym for answer, resolution, fix, remedy, cure and band-aid.

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