Idiom
penny in the fusebox
Meaning
An improvised repair made with no regard for safety.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He put a penny in the fusebox and nearly started a fire.”
“You are taking a huge risk by putting a penny in the fusebox.”
“Desperate to get the lights back on, she used a penny in the fusebox instead of calling an electrician.”
“Using a bent paperclip to bridge the broken circuit was a dangerous penny in the fusebox that eventually fried the entire motherboard.”
“The inspector shuddered at the sight: some previous tenant, seeking a quick fix, had jammed a penny in the fusebox, creating a hazard that could have burned the building down.”
Examples
simple
“He put a penny in the fusebox and nearly started a fire.”
“You are taking a huge risk by putting a penny in the fusebox.”
contextual
“Desperate to get the lights back on, she used a penny in the fusebox instead of calling an electrician.”
“Using a bent paperclip to bridge the broken circuit was a dangerous penny in the fusebox that eventually fried the entire motherboard.”
complex
“The inspector shuddered at the sight: some previous tenant, seeking a quick fix, had jammed a penny in the fusebox, creating a hazard that could have burned the building down.”
Origin
Derived from the literal practice of inserting a copper coin into a fusebox to restore an electrical circuit when a proper replacement was unavailable. While the copper permitted the current to flow, it lacked the safety mechanism of a melting fuse, rendering the improvisation hazardous and widely disdained. The habit was considered a desperate makeshift, tolerable only under extreme pressures such as wartime necessity, though it remained a permanent risk to the building in question.
Key words
Related idioms
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