<jargon> /klooj/, /kluhj/ (From German "klug" /kloog/ - clever and Scottish "kludge") 1. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath Robinson) device, whether in hardware or software. The spelling "kluge" (as opposed to "kludge") was used in connection with computers as far back as the mid-1950s and, at that time, was used exclusively of *hardware* kluges. 2. <programming> A clever programming trick intended to solve a particular nasty case in an expedient, if not clear, manner. Often used to repair bugs. Often involves ad-hockery and verges on being a crock. In fact, the TMRC Dictionary defined "kludge" as "a crock that works". 3. Something that works for the wrong reason. 4. (WPI) A feature that is implemented in a rude manner. In 1947, the "New York Folklore Quarterly" reported a classic shaggy-dog story "Murgatroyd the Kluge Maker" then current in the Armed Forces, in which a "kluge" was a complex and puzzling artifact with a trivial function. Other sources report that "kluge" was common Navy slang in the WWII era for any piece of electronics that worked well on shore but consistently failed at sea. However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a decade older. Several respondents have connected it to the brand name of a device called a "Kluge paper feeder" dating back at least to 1935, an adjunct to mechanical printing presses. The Kluge feeder was designed before small, cheap electric motors and control electronics; it relied on a fiendishly complex assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to both power and synchronise all its operations from one motive driveshaft. It was accordingly tempermental, subject to frequent breakdowns, and devilishly difficult to repair - but oh, so clever! One traditional folk etymology of "klugen" makes it the name of a design engineer; in fact, "Kluge" is a surname in German, and the designer of the Kluge feeder may well have been the man behind this myth. TMRC and the MIT hacker culture of the early 1960s seems to have developed in a milieu that remembered and still used some WWII military slang (see also foobar). It seems likely that "kluge" came to MIT via alumni of the many military electronics projects run in Cambridge during the war (many in MIT's venerable Building 20, which housed TMRC until the building was demolished in 1999). [Jargon File] (2002-10-02)

Something that looks like a pile of junk but actually has a purpose. Used mostly in building models, all the junky bits on spacecraft such as the Millenium Falcon.
Didja see Max's Honda?? He covered it in re-bar...it's totally kluged.

Kluge (, ) is a German-derived surname. In German, capitalizing, and adding a final to, the adjective (meaning "clever"), creates a noun meaning "clever one".

Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind is a 2008 non-fiction book by American psychologist Gary Marcus.

Arnold G. Kluge (born 1935) is professor emeritus of zoology and curator emeritus of amphibians and reptiles at the University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology.

Hans Henri Marcel Paul Kluge (born 29 November 1968, (Roeselare) is a Belgian medical doctor and public health expert with more than 25 years of experience spanning three continents. , he served as the World Health Organization Regional Director for Europe after being nominated in September 2019 by the WHO Regional Committee for Europe.

The John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity is awarded since 2003 for lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences to celebrate the importance of the Intellectual Arts for the public interest.

Walter Kluge was a German luger who competed during the 1930s. He was an active fighter against German fascism and was killed on April, 22nd 1944 in prison in Brandenburg-Görden.

Janice Kluge is an American artist who specializes in large and small scale sculpture. She holds a BFA with honors from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MFA for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Battle () is a 1964 German novel by Alexander Kluge. The novel is a historical account of the battle of Stalingrad in the form of an experimental montage of materials, including diary entries, government reports, and interviews.