ad hockerynoun [ U ]
also ad hocery /ˌæd ˈhɒk.ər.i//ˌæd ˈhɑː.kɚ.i/the practice of reacting to what happens or is needed at a particular time, rather than planning in a way that suits all possible situations:
The government cannot continue to get away with ad hockery in response to local transport needs.
Synonym
ad hocism
More examples
- The resulting ad hockery - letting one bank collapse, while hastily orchestrating a bailout of another - did prevent a depression.
- They may end up facing the charge of arbitrariness or ad hocery.
- A book of this sort - that picks through Plato and Aristotle, Montaigne and Hume - risks losing any narrative thread to ad hockery.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Not expected or planned
- ad hoc
- ad hocism
- ad lib
- ad-lib
- adventitious
- against (all) the odds/against all odds idiom
- all at once idiom
- explosive
- it's just one of those things idiom
- just like that idiom
- make sth up as you go along idiom
- muddle
- muddle along
- rude
- spur
- unawares
- undreamed of
- unexpected
- unforeseen
- unintended
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