With stiff hands they tried to improvise a makeshift with a stick of birch and some string.

The walls, however useless against the best siege artillery, were formidable enough against irregular troops and makeshift batteries; while the warehouses and shipping in the Lower Town were protected by two stockades, one straight under Cape Diamond, the other at the corner where the Lower Town turns into the valley of the St Charles.

The root of 'all the disorders' lay in the fact that a makeshift government was obliged to use makeshift levies for an invasion which required a regular army supported by a fleet.

The root of 'all the disorders' lay in the fact that a makeshift government was obliged to use makeshift levies for an invasion which required a regular army supported by a fleet.

Arnold, moreover, could devote his whole attention to the work, makeshift as it had to be; while Carleton was obliged to keep moving about the province in an effort to bring it into some sort of order after the late invasion.

The main body halted at the same hour just outside the eastern entrance to the town, preparing a makeshift meal; and at this point the sick, both on their own account and to make room in the already crowded ambulances, were transferred to a private hospital.

The nation had accepted that theory as a makeshift for the emergency of that day; but slave cultivation had already exhausted much of the Southern land, and, not content with Utah and New Mexico for their propagandism, the slaveholders cast envious eyes upon the great territory of the Northwest, stretching out from the Missouri border, although it was north of the prohibited line of 36° 30'.

[Fr.], cue. pretense &c (untruth) 546; put off, dust thrown in the eyes; blind; moonshine; mere pretext, shallow pretext; lame excuse, lame apology; tub to a whale; false plea, sour grapes; makeshift, shift, white lie; special pleading &c (sophistry) 477; soft sawder &c (flattery)

An obviously makeshift ending can never be desirable, either from the ideal or from the practical point of view.

Only in his last melancholy effort did Ibsen, in a play designed for representation, demand scenic effects entirely beyond the resources of any theatre not specially fitted for spectacular drama, and possible, even in such a theatre, only in some ridiculously makeshift form.

Not one of the other castes would serve even as a makeshift.

The shed and the other makeshift places were emptied now, and all the hay brought into the barn; the corn was reaped, dried in stacks, and carted in.

Properly constructed, portable, and well-ventilated kennels for single dogs are not expensive and are greatly to be preferred to any amateurish makeshift.

He got out of bed and paused before a makeshift easel where a drawing, taped to a board, showed a woman sitting on a park bench.

Is the same sort of makeshift to be allowed in the processes of American thought, which in the expanse of our territory we have allowed in the processes of material labor?

She might even have had a regular schoolhouse to teach in, instead of being compelled to use a makeshift such as this.

The blame for such a makeshift, which seriously injures the army, falls upon those who did not advocate an increase of the cavalry at the proper moment.

This does not ever really reproduce the conditions of actual warfare, but it is useful as a makeshift.

For travel by land there were nothing but narrow, rough and tortuous foot-paths, with makeshift bridges across the smaller streams.

The cool air brings a much needed respite from the heat and dust, and the environment is definitely less makeshift.

They brought with them the makeshift coffin.

He took a small box from another man, set it down by the airlock, and in seconds had established a makeshift connection.

The eventual product of Mahmud's persistency was the 'Turkey' we have seen in our own timethat Turkey irretrievably Asiatic in spirit under a semi-European system of administration, which has governed despotically in the interests of one creed and one class, with slipshod, makeshift methods, but has always governed, and little by little has extended its range.

Slowly at first, in a makeshift, piece-at-a-time, poor man's way, Boaz commenced to rebuild his house.

But sometimes my words were too crude, and they struck through the thick hide into the quick, into the human, and you winced a little; but this was rarely, for you were very nearly, oh, very nearly an animal, your temperament and intelligence were just those of a dog that has picked up a master, not a real master, but a makeshift master who may turn it out at any moment.