Wiktionary
n. Improvisational design or problem-solving, dealing with low availability of replacement parts and materials.
Wikipedia
Yankee ingenuity is a stereotype of inventiveness, technical solutions to practical problems, "know-how," self-reliance and individual enterprise associated with the Yankees who originated in New England and developed much of the industrial revolution in the United States after 1800. The stereotype first appeared in the 19th century. As Mitchell Wilson notes, "Yankee ingenuity and Yankee git-up-and-go did not exist in colonial days."
Yankee ingenuity characterizes an attitude of make-do with materials on hand. It is inventive improvisation, adaptation and overcoming of shortages of materials.
The term 'Yankee ingenuity' originated from the construction of the Erie Canal across rural upstate New York. Work began in 1817. The canal opened October 26, 1825.
The term was common worldwide in the wake of World War II, as American forces employed engineering solutions to military problems. Doug Stewart notes of the jeep: "the spartan, cramped, and unstintingly functional jeep became the ubiquitous World War II four-wheeled personification of Yankee ingenuity and cocky, can-do determination." Today it refers broadly to a typically American pragmatic approach to problem solving instead of traditional methods.
Usage examples of "yankee ingenuity".
The barrels have filled Rebel hearts not only with fear but also with a good, healthy respect for the prowess of the American soldier and for the genius lying behind what I call with pardonable pride old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity.
In this way, we will keep our industries competitive right here in America if they are willing to apply that Yankee ingenuity we have always been famous for.
He was possessed with a mania for patronizing Yankee ingenuity, and seeing his friends fitly furnished forth.
Like most Europeans, they underestimated good old Yankee ingenuity.
To get around this problem, an improved type of rod, which I regard as a splendid example of Yankee ingenuity, comes with a hinge in the middle.
This was a stretch of highway so narrow, frost-heaved and godforsaken that the fact that someone had once collected real American money from travelers to allow them the privilege of breaking their axles in the ruts and potholes was a testimony to Yankee ingenuity, to say nothing of Yankee gall.