C217 words · Proficient

Housework & Repairs vocabulary — C2

Housework & Repairs vocabulary for building maintenance in survey-report language, including elbow grease, immaculate, botched and ramshackle — words for damp-proofing, remedial work and how well a fix was done.

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Words in this set

elbow grease
Hard physical effort put into scrubbing or polishing something by hand.
Example: That oven door will come up fine with a bit of elbow grease.
potter
/ˈpɑtər/
To spend time on small pleasant jobs without hurrying.
Example: He potters about the shed all Sunday afternoon.
fastidious
/fæˈstɪdiəs/
Extremely careful about cleanliness and detail, sometimes too much so.
Example: He's fastidious about keeping the bathroom spotless.
immaculate
/ˌɪˈmækjulɪt/
Perfectly clean and without any fault.
Example: Her kitchen was always immaculate, not a crumb in sight.
grungy
/ˈɡrʌndʒi/
Dirty and in poor condition, especially in an unpleasant way (informal).
Example: The grungy old carpet needed replacing.
spick-and-span
Extremely clean and tidy (informal idiom).
Example: She had the whole house spick-and-span before the guests arrived.
unhygienic
Not clean enough to be healthy, likely to spread germs.
Example: Leaving raw meat out is completely unhygienic.
daub
/dɔb/
To spread a substance on a surface carelessly.
Example: 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.
Example: A botched repair left the pipe leaking worse than before.
fiddly
Awkward to do because the parts are small and need careful handling.
Example: Rethreading that tiny screw is fiddly without proper glasses.
cannibalise
To take parts from one machine or object to repair another.
Example: He cannibalised an old bike to fix this one.
bodge
To repair something quickly and badly, without much skill (informal, British).
Example: He bodged the shelf back together with tape.
ramshackle
/ˈræmˌʃækəl/
Badly built or maintained, and likely to fall apart.
Example: The ramshackle old shed leaned dangerously to one side.
slapdash
/ˈslæpˌdæʃ/
Done carelessly and too quickly, without enough attention.
Example: The slapdash repair job fell apart within a week.
unsound
/ənˈsaʊnd/
Not safe or solid; likely to fail or collapse.
Example: The inspector declared the balcony structurally unsound.
stopgap
/ˈstɑpˌɡæp/
A temporary solution used until something better is available.
Example: The tape was just a stopgap until we could buy a new hinge.
scour
/ˈskaʊər/
To clean something by rubbing it hard.
Example: You have to scour the sink or the mark stays.