Cruft
Meaning
Redundant software or hardware
Example
"When you have time, can you recycle the cruft in the 4th-floor storage room?"
A large pile of cruft in the 4th-floor storage room.
Related Slang
Usage
Last Updated: March 22, 2019
Cruft definition
This page explains what the slang term "Cruft" means. The definition, example, and related terms listed above have been written and compiled by the Slangit team.
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Cruft is similar to "crud," but refers to redundant elements of software or old hardware. It is most often used by computer enthusiasts and IT professionals.
The term was originally used in agriculture to describe the part of a grain that cannot be used for any useful purpose and is thrown away during harvest. Over time, people began using cruft to describe junk that wasn't useful to anyone, such as an unsalvageable piece of furniture gathering dust in an attic.
In the computer age, "cruft" now describes software and hardware that is no longer useful due to it being defective or deprecated. For example, software cruft might be unnecessary code left behind when software is compiled due to poorly written source code by noob programmers. Hardware cruft might refer to old PCs and monitors left over from a corporate IT upgrade.
Cruft may also refer to extra characters in URLs, which are more useful to developers than typical users. Examples include .html, .asp, and .php file extensions.