MacGyver

verb

Mac·​Gy·​ver mə-ˈgī-vər 

MacGyvered; MacGyvering; MacGyvers

transitive verb

slang

: to make, form, or repair (something) with what is conveniently on hand

She took … some cardboard packing inserts …, an extra shelf from a bookcase, an overturned bucket and lots of duct tape and MacGyvered a "desk" that goes over the treadmill.

—John Kelly

Food2, an offshoot of the Food Network, has a dating show that makes contestants MacGyver a meal without a kitchen, leading to a lot of meat cooked on car engines and ironing boards.

—Joel Stein

With creativity and help from the right technology, you can MacGyver together an office that is both fully functional and economical.

—Steve Adams

Did you know?

Angus MacGyver, as portrayed by actor Richard Dean Anderson in the titular, action-packed television series MacGyver, was many things—including a secret agent, a Swiss Army knife enthusiast, and a convert to vegetarianism—but he was no MacGuffin (a character that keeps the plot in motion despite lacking intrinsic importance). In fact, so memorable was this man, his mullet, and his ability to use whatever was available to him—often simple things, such as a paper clip, chewing gum, or a rubber band—to escape a sticky situation or to make a device to help him complete a mission, that people began associating his name with making quick fixes or finding innovative solutions to immediate problems. Hence the verb MacGyver, a slang term meaning to “make, form, or repair (something) with what is conveniently on hand.” After years of steadily increasing and increasingly varied usage following the show’s run from 1985 to 1992 (tracked in some detail here), MacGyver was added to our online dictionary in 2022.

Word History

Etymology

after Angus MacGyver, protagonist of the U.S. television series MacGyver (1985-92), known for regularly improvising solutions to practical problems with limited tools and materials

First Known Use

1992, in the meaning defined above

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