Spanish word of the day: Chapuza

What does chapuza mean?

Chapuza (feminine noun) — A botched job, a slapdash fix, or anything done carelessly and without proper attention to detail. If something is a chapuza, it works—sort of—but it’s messy, unreliable, or just plain shoddy.

Example sentences with chapuza

• El arreglo de la tubería fue una chapuza y ahora hay una fuga peor.
  🔧 The pipe repair was a botched job, and now there’s an even worse leak.

• No quiero una chapuza, prefiero esperar y hacerlo bien.
  ⏳ I don’t want a quick-and-dirty fix; I’d rather wait and do it right.

• Esa silla es una chapuza, se tambalea por todas partes.
  🪑 That chair is a mess—it wobbles all over the place.

Chapuza in context

Chapuza is a word you’ll hear often when people are frustrated with poor workmanship or quick fixes that don’t really solve the problem. It’s the perfect way to describe a repair that looks fine at first glance but falls apart as soon as you use it, or a project that was rushed just to get it over with. If you hire someone to paint your house and they leave streaks and drips everywhere, that’s a classic chapuza.

In daily life, people use chapuza to vent about anything from home repairs to bureaucratic processes or even half-baked ideas at work. It’s a handy word when you want to warn someone about cutting corners, or when you’re sharing a story about a time something didn’t go as planned because someone took the easy way out.