rat's nest
A situation or condition that is characterized by messiness, disorder, disarray, and/or confusion. Commonly used in the technology sector to refer to a software design or implementation that is hopelessly convoluted and difficult to understand - analogous to how a rat might construct its nest (haphazardly and hastily thrown together from whatever materials happened to be readily available at the time).
"I tried to figure out which wire was causing the problem, but there's a veritable rat's nest of wires, chords and cables down there."
rat's nest by CatpainJack October 28, 2009
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