Makeshift means put together from whatever was to hand. A makeshift shelter, makeshift repair, makeshift arrangements.
It says the thing works and was never meant to last, which is a compliment to the ingenuity and a warning about the result. Makeshift repairs have a way of becoming permanent. The word is make plus shift in the old sense of a contrivance — to make shift was to manage somehow.
1adjectivemakeshiftPut together from whatever was to hand.
“After the earthquake, families slept in makeshift tents made of plastic sheets.”
synonyms: improvised, temporary
makeshift is a quality of improvisation.
Make plus shift, in the old sense of a contrivance or expedient. To make shift meant to manage somehow.
a deverbal from make shift. First appears c. 1554, in the publications of H. Hilarie.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA