Definition

1. Verb:

   • To patch up: To repair or assemble something by joining together disparate or mismatched parts, often in a makeshift or temporary manner.
   • To cobble together: To create or compose something from a collection of varied, often unsuitable, elements, resulting in a non-uniform whole.

2. Adjective:

   • Patchwork; Makeshift: Describing something that is poorly constructed or planned from an assortment of different, often incompatible, parts or ideas. It implies a lack of coherence, system, or permanence.

Usage Examples

• Verb:

  • Họ phải chắp vá những mảnh vải cũ để làm chăn. (They had to patch up old pieces of cloth to make a blanket.)
  • Anh ấy chắp vá bài báo cáo từ nhiều nguồn khác nhau. (He cobbled together the report from many different sources.)

• Adjective:

  • Đây là một kế hoạch chắp vá và không khả thi. (This is a patchwork plan and is not feasible.)
  • Chiếc xe chắp vá đó không thể chạy lâu được. (That makeshift car cannot run for long.)

Advanced Usage

• Used to criticize a non-systematic, disorganized, or temporary approach to solving problems, managing work, or creating something.
  • Lối quản lý chắp vá (a patchwork management style)
  • Giải pháp chắp vá (a stopgap solution)

Variants and Related Words

• Chắp nối (v): To connect or join parts, often implying a rough or temporary connection. It can be less negative than "chắp vá."
  • Chắp nối dây điện (to splice electrical wires)

Synonyms

• To patch: To mend by putting a piece over a hole.
• To jury-rig: To assemble or repair something with whatever materials are at hand.
• Haphazard: Lacking any obvious principle of organization.
• Disparate: Essentially different in kind; not allowing comparison.

Related Idioms

• Làm ăn chắp vá: To work in an unsystematic, piecemeal, or improvised manner.

  • Công ty sẽ phá sản nếu cứ làm ăn chắp vá như vậy. (The company will go bankrupt if it keeps working in such a haphazard way.)

• Chắp vá đầu Ngô mình Sở: (A classical idiom) Literally "to patch a Ngô head onto a Sở body." It means to clumsily combine mismatched parts, resulting in something incongruous and dysfunctional.

  • Bản thiết kế này giống như chắp vá đầu Ngô mình Sở. (This design is like patching a Ngô head on a Sở body—it's a mismatched mess.)

1. To patch up
   • góp nhặt phụ tùng cũ để chắp vá thành một chiếc máy
     to patch up gathered old parts into a machine
   • kế hoạch chắp vá
     a patchedup plan
   • lối làm ăn chắp vá
     a style of work consisting in patching up things, an unsystematic style of work