finicky
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From finick (“to work in a fastidious manner, wasting time over unnecessary details”) + -y. Compare finicking, finical, and dated finikin. Perhaps suggested by obsolete Dutch fijnkens (“accurately, neatly, prettily”) (modern Dutch fijntjes). Compare also Sicilian finicchiu.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈfɪnɪki/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Hyphenation: fin‧ick‧y
Adjective
[edit]finicky (comparative finickier or more finicky, superlative finickiest or most finicky)
- (informal, of a person) Fastidious and fussy; difficult to please; exacting, especially about details.
- Synonyms: fastidious, fussy; see also Thesaurus:fastidious
- My editor is very finicky about punctuation. Every dot and comma has to be just right.
- She has a finicky baby that's hard to feed.
- (informal) Demanding; requiring above-normal care.
- The lawnmower is a bit finicky in cold weather.
- 2009 July 13, Evan Kleiman, “Pie-a-Day #20 & #21: Cherry Pie and Sour Cream Ice Cream Pie”, in KCRW[1], archived from the original on 3 June 2025:
- Instead of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cream Cheese Pie Crust from her addictingly finicky The Pie and Pastry Bible, I decided to make her Sour Cream Crust.
Usage notes
[edit]- The forms finickier and finickiest also exist, but are quite rare, and perhaps nonstandard. The forms more finicky and most finicky are much more common, and certainly standard.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]fastidious and fussy; difficult to please; exacting
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demanding, requiring above-normal care
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Further reading
[edit]- “finicky”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.