patchwork
noun, verb
Forms patchworks patchworking patchworked
- noun A work, such as a blanket, composed of many different colors and shapes, sewn together to make an interesting whole.
- noun (figurative) Any kind of creation that makes use of many different aspects to create one whole piece. “Bill took all of his poetry and put it together in a folder. It made up a patchwork of his life.”
- noun (derogatory) A state of regulations whose constituents have an opaque scope of application because of their questionable delimitation with regard to each other.
- verb (transitive) To create a patchwork from pieces of fabric.
- verb (transitive) To assemble from a variety of sources; to cobble together.
Synonyms
Etymology
From patch + work.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “patchwork”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details