[ad hok; Lat. ahd hohk] 
| 1. | for the special purpose or end presently under consideration: a committee formed ad hoc to deal with the issue. |
| 2. | concerned or dealing with a specific subject, purpose, or end: The ad hoc committee disbanded after making its final report. |
| ad hoc (ād hŏk', hōk') adv. For the specific purpose, case, or situation at hand and for no other: a committee formed ad hoc to address the issue of salaries. adj.
[Latin : ad, to + hoc, neuter accusative of hic, this.] |
ad hoc
Contrived purely for the purpose in hand rather than planned carefully in advance. E.g. "We didn't know what to do about the sausage rolls, so we set up an ad-hoc committee".
(1995-03-25)
ad hoc
For the special purpose or end at hand; also, by extension, improvised or impromptu. The term, Latin for "to this," is most often used for committees established for a specific purpose, as in The committee was formed ad hoc to address health insurance problems. The term is also used as an adjective (An ad hoc committee was formed), and has given rise to the noun adhocism for the tendency to use temporary, provisional, or improvised methods to deal with a particular problem. [Early 1600s]