patchwork quilt

English

Noun

patchwork quilt (plural patchwork quilts)

1. (literally) A decorative quilt made of pieces of cloth having diverse sizes, colors, and shapes, sewn together either to form a regular pattern or in a deliberately mismatched fashion without a pattern.
2. (figuratively, by extension) Something having a haphazard or disorganized structure; something composed of seemingly random parts.
   • 1989 September 25, Susan Tifft et al., “Sticker Shock at the Ivory Tower”, in Time:

     Despite a patchwork quilt of aid that includes scholarships, loans and an on-campus job, Kenner's father, a train conductor, must now pay $6,000 out of pocket to send his daughter to school.

Synonyms

• (Something having a haphazard or disorganized structure or random composition): hodgepodge, jumble

Translations

decorative quilt

• Finnish: tilkkutäkki (fi)
• German: Patchworkdecke f
• Latin: centō m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lappeteppe (no) n

  Nynorsk: lappeteppe n

• Spanish: colcha de parches f
• Swedish: lapptäcke (sv) n

disorganized structure

• Finnish: tilkkutäkki (fi)
• German: Flickenteppich (de) m, Sammelsurium (de) n
• Swedish: sammelsurium (sv)

See also

• crazy quilt