Definition of "ad hoc" [ad hoc]

• For the specific purpose, case, or situation at hand and for no other: a committee formed ad hoc to address the issue of salaries. (adverb)
• Formed for or concerned with one specific purpose: an ad hoc compensation committee. (adjective)
• Improvised and often impromptu: "On an ad hoc basis, Congress has . . . placed . . . ceilings on military aid to specific countries” ( New York Times). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Here the Kennedy-Bundy ad hoc mode of operation generated a series of incremental decisions that coped with the present but piled up problems for the future."
• "Secretary of State Rusk, by contrast, was most uncomfortable with it, thinking it inappropriate for a person of his rank to argue policy in large meetings with staff aides, or to handle matters ad hoc with Kennedy or Bundy over the telephone."
• "Colonel House, Harry Hopkins, Andy Goodpastertheir roles were ad hoc responses to presidential needs."