cruft

English

Etymology

Uncertain: possibly from Cruft Hall, the name of the radar laboratory of Harvard's physics department during the Second World War, which contained much old and unused technical equipment; possibly a blend of crust and fluff, both of which suggest things that are obsolete and superfluous; possibly a modified form of crust. The supposed acronym "commodity residue undergoing fanciful transit" is a backronym.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʌft

Noun

Wikipedia cruft (uncountable)

1. (computing, informal) Anything old or of inferior quality.
2. (computing, informal) Redundant, old or improperly written code, especially that which accumulates over time; clutter.

Derived terms

• crufting
• crufty