# Housework & Repairs Expert

https://hienglishquiz.com/vocabulary/everyday-life-c2-housework-vocab

- CEFR: C2 (Proficient)
- Theme: Daily Life
- Words: 22
- Premium: no
- Locked: no

Housework & Repairs vocabulary for building maintenance in survey-report language, including elbow grease, immaculate, botched and ramshackle — words for…

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## Word list

* **elbow grease**: Hard physical effort put into scrubbing or polishing something by hand. — “That oven door will come up fine with a bit of **elbow grease**.”
* **potter** /ˈpɑtər/: To spend time on small pleasant jobs without hurrying. — “He **potters** about the shed all Sunday afternoon.”
* **fastidious** /fæˈstɪdiəs/: Extremely careful about cleanliness and detail, sometimes too much so. — “He's **fastidious** about keeping the bathroom spotless.”
* **immaculate** /ˌɪˈmækjulɪt/: Perfectly clean and without any fault. — “Her kitchen was always **immaculate**, not a crumb in sight.”
* **festering** /ˈfɛstərɪŋ/: Becoming increasingly dirty, rotten or unpleasant over time. — “A **festering** pile of dishes sat in the sink for days.”
* **slovenly** /ˈslʌvənli/: Habitually messy, dirty and careless about appearance. — “His **slovenly** habits meant clothes were left everywhere.”
* **grungy** /ˈɡrʌndʒi/: Dirty and in poor condition, especially in an unpleasant way (informal). — “The **grungy** old carpet needed replacing.”
* **sullied** /ˈsʌlid/: Made dirty or spoiled, especially something that was once clean or pure (formal/literary). — “The white sofa was quickly **sullied** by muddy paws.”
* **spick-and-span**: Extremely clean and tidy (informal idiom). — “She had the whole house **spick-and-span** before the guests arrived.”
* **unhygienic**: Not clean enough to be healthy, likely to spread germs. — “Leaving raw meat out is completely **unhygienic**.”
* **daub** /dɔb/: To spread a substance on a surface carelessly. — “Somebody had to **daub** filler over the crack before painting.”
* **botched** /bɑtʃt/: Done so clumsily and badly that the whole job has to be put right again. — “A **botched** repair left the pipe leaking worse than before.”
* **fiddly**: Awkward to do because the parts are small and need careful handling. — “Rethreading that tiny screw is **fiddly** without proper glasses.”
* **cannibalise**: To take parts from one machine or object to repair another. — “He **cannibalised** an old bike to fix this one.”
* **bodge**: To repair something quickly and badly, without much skill (informal, British). — “He **bodged** the shelf back together with tape.”
* **ramshackle** /ˈræmˌʃækəl/: Badly built or maintained, and likely to fall apart. — “The **ramshackle** old shed leaned dangerously to one side.”
* **slapdash** /ˈslæpˌdæʃ/: Done carelessly and too quickly, without enough attention. — “The **slapdash** repair job fell apart within a week.”
* **haphazard** /hæpˈhæzərd/: Done without any clear plan or order. — “Their **haphazard** approach to repairs caused more problems.”
* **unsound** /ənˈsaʊnd/: Not safe or solid; likely to fail or collapse. — “The inspector declared the balcony structurally **unsound**.”
* **stopgap** /ˈstɑpˌɡæp/: A temporary solution used until something better is available. — “The tape was just a **stopgap** until we could buy a new hinge.”
* **kludge**: An inelegant but workable solution to a problem, especially in engineering or computing (informal). — “The whole system was held together by one clever **kludge**.”
* **scour** /ˈskaʊər/: To clean something by rubbing it hard. — “You have to **scour** the sink or the mark stays.”

## Related

- Vocabulary library: https://hienglishquiz.com/vocabulary
- Section guide: https://hienglishquiz.com/vocabulary/llms.txt