patchwork
/ˈpatʃwəːk
/noun [mass noun]
1Needlework in which small pieces of cloth in different designs, colours, or textures are sewn together: a piece of patchwork [as modifier]: a patchwork bedspread...
- Take your large piece of fabric and patchwork square, put them right sides together and neatly sew three sides together leaving a 1/2-inch seam.
- A small, brightly coloured patchwork ball made from pieces of multicoloured cloth.
- You can cut the squares into shapes for appliqués and secure the edges with an open zigzag stitch, or cut the squares into pieces and seam them into patchwork designs.
1.1 [count noun] A thing composed of many different elements so as to appear variegated: a patchwork of stone walls and green fields...
- Two other gallery walls offered dense patchworks of light-hued paintings by Irish, alongside darker works scavenged from the Academy's collection.
- The result is an intriguing brew of thick textures jibing into a florid collection of sonic patchworks.
- Many of them are, in effect, patchworks made up from fragments of different dances.
Synonyms
assortment, miscellany, mixture, melange, medley, blend, variety, mixed bag, mix, diversity, collection, selection, assemblage, combination, motley collection, pot-pourri, conglomeration, jumble, mess, confusion, mishmash, hotchpotch, hodgepodge, ragbag, pastiche, farrago, hash
informal scissors-and-paste job
rare gallimaufry, omnium gatherum, olio, salmagundi, macédoine
Derivatives
patchworked
- On the broad streets where the German cobbles are patchworked with crusty commie asphalt and potholes, hundreds of nicked western BMWs, Mercedes and Fiats lurch and belch around ancient trams and trolleybuses.
- Her hands are making tiny swimming motions in the air as they pull her avatar through the sidewalks rendered on the inside of her glasses, patchworked in realtime from same node transmissions which made night day for me.
- Teaching sustainable building skills to help replace the fire-hazard corrugated zinc sheeting patchworked together into houses (without having to rely on the 10-year old unfulfilled government housing promises).