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crock

   awkward feature or programming technique that ought to be made
   cleaner.  For example, using small integers to represent error
   codes without the program interpreting them to the user (as in, for
   example, UNIX `make(1)', which returns code 139 for a process
   that dies due to segfault).  2. A technique that works
   acceptably, but which is quite prone to failure if disturbed in the
   least.  For example, a too-clever programmer might write an
   assembler which mapped instruction mnemonics to numeric opcodes
   algorithmically, a trick which depends far too intimately on the
   particular bit patterns of the opcodes.  (For another example of
   programming with a dependence on actual opcode values, see The
   Story of Mel, a Real Programmer in Appendix A.)  Many crocks
   have a tightly woven, almost completely unmodifiable structure.
   See kluge, brittle.  The adjectives `crockish' and
   `crocky', and the nouns `crockishness' and `crockitude', are
   also used.