?borrow a bit here and a bit there; borrow here and there to pull through(the hard days);
?cut and contrive; make a medley(/hodgepodge) (of odds and ends) from different sorts of things; patched-up; piece (/knock)together; pinch and scrape to get together; [of writings] scissors-and-paste; scrape together
? 因是兒子的終身大事所關(guān)，說(shuō)不得東并西湊，恭恭敬敬封了二十四兩贄見(jiàn)禮。(《紅樓夢(mèng)》105) In the interest of his son’s career he had to pinch and scrape to get together twenty-four taels of silver as a handsome entrance gift.
? 誰(shuí)有功夫去讀這些～的文章呢？ Who can afford the time to read such scissors-and-paste essays?
東拼西湊dōnɡ pīn xī còu
千方百計(jì)地把零星的事物湊合到一塊。knock together, cut and contrive, jumble, patched-up, scrape together, piece together, do patch work