rickety
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From dialectal ricket (“unstable, rickety”) + -y, and/or ricket (“to move noisily and in a reckless way”) + -y.
Alternatively, and perhaps less likely, from rickets + -y.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]rickety (comparative ricketier or more rickety, superlative ricketiest or most rickety)
- Of an object: not strong or sturdy, as because of poor construction or upkeep; not safe or secure.
- Synonyms: precarious, rachitic, shaky, tottering, unsafe, unstable, unsteady, wobbly
- He hesitated about climbing such a small, rickety ladder.
- 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 61:
- She now knew every article Mrs Dibble had to sell, and the large part of the stock that was unsaleable by reason of its damaged state. Customers turned away from rickety chairs, stands of drawers that refused to open, or had no handles, lop-sided wardrobes whose doors were out of plumb or whose mirrors were cracked.
- (of a person) Feeble in the joints; tottering.
- The rickety old man hardly managed to climb the stairs.
- (pathology) Affected with or suffering from rickets; rachitic.
Translations
[edit]not strong because of poor construction or upkeep
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feeble in the joints, tottering
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affected with rickets
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Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -y (adjectival)
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪkɪti
- Rhymes:English/ɪkɪti/3 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɪketi
- Rhymes:English/ɪketi/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Diseases