quick and dirty

Register · Informal Informal — used in casual, everyday conversation among friends and family. Avoid in formal writing or professional settings. CEFR B2

Post

Figurative meaning

done rapidly and roughly, with little care for quality or polish

Why this phrase?

As opposed to a proper, durable solution: fast to write, cheap to run once, painful to maintain forever.

Example

“It's a quick-and-dirty script to parse the logs; don't expect it to handle every edge case.”

Dictionary details

Component words

quick dirty

Tags

Expressions connected by reviewed component words or topic tags.

band-aid fix Informal · CEFR B2

a hasty, temporary solution that patches a symptom without addressing the root cause

smoke test Neutral · CEFR B2

a quick, shallow test that checks whether a system's most basic functions work at all

golden path Neutral · CEFR C1

the default, well-supported, happy-path way of using a system, opposed to exotic configurations

feature creep Neutral · CEFR B2

the uncontrolled growth of new features until a product becomes bloated and hard to use

iron out the kinks Neutral · CEFR B2

to fix the last small problems in a plan, process, or product

reinvent the wheel Neutral · CEFR B2

to waste time recreating something that already exists and works well

Source methodology

Meanings, register, CEFR, and examples come from the reviewed dictionary record. Expression notes may describe a reviewed present-day word picture or a background note; they are not presented as verified etymology.

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