/kruhf'tee/
[origin unknown; poss. from 'crusty' or 'cruddy']
adj. 1. Poorly built, possibly over-complex. The canonical example is "This is standard old crufty DEC software". In fact, one fanciful theory of the origin of 'crufty' holds that was originally a mutation of 'crusty' applied to DEC software so old that the 's' characters were tall and skinny, looking more like 'f' characters.
2. Unpleasant, especially to the touch, often with encrusted junk. Like spilled coffee smeared with peanut butter and ketchup.
3. Generally unpleasant.
4. (sometimes spelled 'cruftie') n. A small crufty object (see frob); often one that doesn't fit well into the scheme of things.
"A LISP property list is a good place to store crufties (or, collectively, random cruft)."