bodge
UK/bɒdʒ/US/bɑdʒ/
bodge verb: to do a clumsy or inelegant job, usually as a temporary repair; mend, patch up, repair.
Verb
bodge (third-person singular simple present bodges, present participle bodging, simple past and past participle bodged)
- To do a clumsy or inelegant job, usually as a temporary repair; mend, patch up, repair.
- We bodged again; as I have seen a swanc. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- All the actions of his life are like so many things bodged in without any natural cadence or connexion at all.1865, A book of characters, selected from the writings of Overbury, Earle, and Butler, Thomas Overbury and John Earle
- Synonyms:
- cludge, cobble together, jury-rig, kludge, kluge, knock together, knock up, MacGyver, make-do, patch
- To work green wood using traditional country methods; to perform the craft of a bodger.
- His father, grandfather and countless generations before him had obtained a living from chair bodging in the solitude of the beech glades.1978, John Geraint Jenkins, Traditional Country Craftsmen, →ISBN, page 16
- "Bodging is more a curiosity than a valid craft these days," says Don. "But experience in low-tech woodworking is also a good way for the beginner to start getting a feel for turning without having to make a huge investment in a modern lathe."1989 May–June, John Birchard, “The artful bodger”, in American Woodworker, page 41
Noun (1)
bodge (plural bodges)
- A clumsy or inelegant job, usually a temporary repair; a patch, a repair.
- The simple tool above provides a low-tech bodge to help people locate missing friends and family in Christchurch following today's terrible earthquake.2011 February 22, Cory Doctorow, “Google App to help locate people in Christchurch quake”, in BoingBoing, retrieved 05 Feb 2012
Noun (2)
bodge (plural bodges)
Adjective
bodge (comparative more bodge, superlative most bodge)
Examples of bodge in a sentence
- Some cars were neglected, others bodged to keep them running with inevitable consequences2003, Laurence Meredith, Original Porsche 356: The Restorer's Guide:
- Do not be satisfied with a bodged job, set yourself professional goals and standards2007, Enric Roselló, The Restoration Handbook:
Synonyms of bodge
14 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of bodge
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | bodges |
| present participle | bodging |
| past participle | bodged |
| past | bodged |
| Noun | |
| plural | bodges |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more bodge |
| superlative | most bodge |
Origin of bodge
Inherited from Middle English bocchen (“to mend, patch up, repair”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Middle Dutch botsen, butsen, boetsen (“to repair, patch”) (Dutch botsen (“to strike, beat, knock together”)), related to Old High German bōzan (“to beat”), See beat; or perhaps from Old English bōtettan (“to improve, repair”), Old English bōtian (“to get better”). Compare botch. More at boot. Perhaps from boggle. Perhaps from botch (“patch, or a measurement of capacity equivalent to half a peck”). There is a hypothesis that bodges, defined as rough sacks of corn, closely resembled packages of finished goods the bodgers carried when they left the forest or workshop. Another hypothesis (dating from 1879) is that bodger was a corruption of badger, as similarly to the behaviour of a badger, the bodger dwelt in the woods and seldom emerged until evenings. Other hypotheses include German Böttcher (“cooper (profession)”), a trade that uses similar tools), and similar Scandinavian words, such the Danish bødker. These words have similar origins to butt, as in water butt (“rain barrel”). Or possibly it may have been a derogatory term used by workers in furniture factories, referring to the...
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Words formed from bodge
Phrases with bodge
Words that rhyme with bodge
Questions about bodge
- What does bodge mean?
- Bodge means to do a clumsy or inelegant job, usually as a temporary repair; mend, patch up, repair.
- How do you use bodge in a sentence?
- Some cars were neglected, others bodged to keep them running with inevitable consequences
- What part of speech is bodge?
- Bodge can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce bodge?
- Bodge is pronounced /bɒdʒ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of bodge?
- The past tense of bodge is bodged.
Words near bodge in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bodge (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-bodge.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bodge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bodge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.